LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 
©gap. iapijngtyt ^a. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 



TEN COMMANDMENTS 



IN THE 



NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



BY 
F. S. SCHENCK, 

Pastor of the Brick Church, 
Montgomery, N. Y. 




FUNK & WAGNALLS. 

NEW YORK: LONDON: 

1889 
18 AND 20 ASTOE PLACE. 44 FLEET STREET. 



&% 



D* 



Q>- 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1889, by 

FUNK & WAGNALLS, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. 



LC Control Number 



tmp96 



029049 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

I. Preface 8 

II. The Law-Giver « . 5 

III. The First Commandment 15 

IV. The Second Commandment 26 

V. The Third Commandment 38 

VI. The Fourth Commandment 48 

VII. The Fifth Commandment 61 

VIII. The Sixth Commandment 75 

IX. The Seventh Commandment 87 

X. The Eighth Commandment 102 

XI. The Ninth Commandment. . v . . 4 118 

XII. The Tenth Commandment. . . . , . . ... 129 



PREFACE. 



A great philosopher has said that the mind must 
be filled with awe when one contemplates either the 
Universe or the Ten Commandments. The psalmist 
saw the glory of God alike in the heavens and in the 
law. Given in the early dawn of civilization, this law 
has not been left behind in the advance of the race, 
but still stands far ahead beckoning on the centuries. 
Its perfection is a sufficient evidence of its divine 
origin. Each commandment is an authoritative state- 
ment of a fundamental principle of human nature. 
I send forth this book with the great design of help- 
ing men to see the glory of God, and our own nobility, 
as set forth in this law of our being. 



THE LAW-GIVER. 

"And God spake all these words, saying : I am the Lord thy 
God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the 
house of bondage."— Ex. 20: 1,2. 

There is a law by which the earth revolves, and light 
follows darkness. There is a law by which the earth 
sweeps round the sun, and the seasons follow each other 
in endless procession ; spring with its flowers, summer 
with its harvests, autumn with its fruits, and winter 
with its snows. There is a law by which fishes swim in 
the sea, birds fly in the air, and the lion roams through 
the forest ; by which man goes forth to his labor with 
the morning light and returns to his rest with the even- 
ing shades. Wherever we look, over our heads, beneath 
our feet, on every side, within our bodies, there is the 
working of law. Nature teaches us that her mysterious 
force is regulated and so manifests an established order 
of events ; that she produces the harmony of the whole 
and the well-being of each part by obedience to law. 
We can imagine a particular thing casting off the law 
of its being, but only to its own ruin. A stone flies 
from the earth and is consumed; a plant refuses the rain 
and languishes ; an animal resists the craving of appetite 
and starves. We can imagine a combined breaking of 
the law — an organized rebellion — *an.d the earth throws 
off the power of the sun and rushes out into space, only 
to find the chill darkness of death. The only conceiva- 
ble way of escape from the evils of such rebellion would 
be by a restoration to obedience. 

5 



6 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

The highest well-being of nature in whole or in any 
particular part can be attained only by operation of 
law. The law does not arise from this well-being, for it 
is its source. There can be only one source of law, the 
will of the Law-giver. All nature is as Mount Sinai, the 
throne of the Law-giver. All law being the expression 
of His will is the manifestation of His character, and 
with reference to the creature subject to it is the 
description of its highest possible well-being, the ideal 
of God for it. All the well-being we can see in nature 
comes through the operation of law whose source is 
God's good will. 

Let us recognize at the beginning of our study of the 
Ten Commandments that this law has its source in God. 
It comes to us from His will whose authority is beyond 
question and our obligation to obey is complete. 

We will be able to see with various degrees of clear- 
ness, according to the powers of soul which God has 
bestowed upon us and according to the attention we 
give to the subject, that the law prescribes a "general 
fitness of things," that it aims to promote the general 
happiness, and that it describes the nature of man 
according to the design of his Creator, so setting forth 
the unchanging principles of his being. But our obli- 
gation to obey could never be complete if it rested upon 
our seeing these things, for the most gifted of mankind 
are incompetent to judge of the " general fitness of 
things," have at best a limited view of the general good, 
and have not yet fully discovered all the unchanging 
principles of our being. Neither could these things in 
themselves, if fully seen, bind the conscience ; to awaken 
the "I ought not" of conscience against an aroused 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 7 

desire, there is needed further the voice of God. If we 
weigh the general good or even an acknowledged prin- 
ciple of our nature against an intense desire, the act is 
one of the judgment, and the desire will have a controll- 
ing influence upon it; but at the bar of conscience the 
voice of God saying, " Thou shalt not," concludes the 
case, and desire can have no standing. 

When, however, we regard the unchanging principles 
of our nature as wrought into the constitution of the 
creature by the Creator, they become the expression of 
his will and so a law binding upon the conscience. A 
godless evolution can never devise a law binding on 
the conscience, but an evolution searching for the 
Creator finds in these principles of man's nature the 
voice of God. These principles and the Ten Command- 
ments coming from the same source confirm and illus- 
trate each other. The giving of the law at Sinai is not 
to be regarded therefore as the institution of a new law, 
only as the publication in a new way of the original 
law of our being. The terrible circumstances attending* 
its issuing, and the fact that it is issued largely in a 
prohibitory form, indicate that it is issued to a race who 
have already broken, and whose strong tendency is to 
continue to break, the unchanging principles of their 
being — to fall from the ideal of God. Their fall gives 
the reason for the issuing of the law. God does not 
lower his ideal for the race, but since they have lost 
sight of it, He sets it before them in a new and striking 
form. He chooses a time in the history of the race for 
issuing his law which precludes all thought of its hav- 
ing a human origin. The world would never look for its 
highest code of religion and morals to the Egyptian 



8 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

civilization, nor to a race of slaves. He stamps upon it 
the seal of His work, perfection. 

We shall see as we pursue our study that each com- 
mand states a great principle of our nature; that highest 
manliness can only be attained in recognizing and follow- 
ing this principle. The highest civilization the world 
has yet reached has not gone beyond, has not even 
attained to the carrying out of these principles. No 
reason has been discovered for setting aside a single 
command as unworthy of God or man. Neither is there 
any prospect that man will ever become conscious, dur- 
ing this earthly stage of his existence, of a principle of 
his being which is not covered by the law of God, nor 
of a " fitness of things " not provided for, nor of a way 
of securing happiness other than obedience to it. 

The Ten Commandments are the authentic state- 
ments by the Creator of the great general principles of 
the constitution of man and of human society, since they 
are the statutes issued by the Supreme Law-giver. The 
voice teaching man of his own nature and relationships 
has the tone of rightful authority, is the voice of God. 

Since " God spake all these words " we find in them 
the law of our being. The conscience hears his voice, 
acknowledges his rightful authority and bows before 
him. 

There is great need of the " I ought " power being 
developed in our nature so that it controls our lives ; 
a need at least as great in this advanced age and in 
rich America as it was in that early age and in the 
wilderness of Sinai. To be swayed not by impulse, nor 
by intense desire, nor by aroused willfulness, but by a 
sense of obligation to God, insures a manhood which is 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. g 

a success in itself. What better start in life can the 
young have than a firm determination to obey God ? 
Can there be a better guide in life, in the perplexities 
of society, of business or of politics, than this same 
principle of obedience to God ? Will not the character 
of steadfast obedience to God be the only kind of 
character we will care to take with us when we pass 
beyond this life ? We may well be very diligent in our 
study of the Ten Commandments, with the strong pur- 
pose to make them the rule of our lives. 

While this law coming from God binds the conscience, 
it at the same time secures true liberty of conscience. 
Nothing can bind the conscience beyond or contrary 
to this law. It is the comprehensive and only law of 
the conscience. All moral and religious duties are 
covered by it ; there can be none beyond or contrary to 
it. It provides for obedience to State and Church and 
regard for public opinion, and sets limits also to such 
regard and obedience. Our obligation to obey human 
enactments rests upon this law. They therefore must 
never be contrary to it. We are not called to obey but 
rather to resist the usurpations of men, in whatever 
position and however well meaning, who would make 
that to be sin which God does not forbid, and that 
obligatory which God does not command. The spirit 
of obeying God. rather than man has led martyrs to the 
stake and patriots to the battle-field, and to it we are 
largely indebted for the civil and religious liberty we 
possess in this land of the free. 

This law coming from God repels many of the as- 
saults of infidelity upon the Bible. Infidelity finds it 
impossible to account for the existence of this law in the 



10 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

Bible. It is too absurd to claim that this consummate 
moral and religious code arose from the religious and 
moral condition of the race at that time. The law, and 
the life of Jesus Christ, perfect according to the law, 
these are in the Bible — its exclusive possession — and all 
the criticisms and witticisms of infidels fall from them 
as arrows shot against a fortress, broken, and leaving no 
mark. Besides, infidelity is forced to honor the moral 
law in making it its standard of criticism. Much of its 
fault-finding of lives and measures is an unintended 
tribute to the law of God. They forget that the 
Bible, like any historical record, does not commend all 
it records ; but it does contain the highest standard of 
judgment, the revealed will of God, before which they 
instinctively bow. Their criticism of the civil law, that 
it upheld polygamy, established slavery, inflicted the 
death-penalty for many offenses, is virtually a com- 
parison of it with the moral law, and shows only their 
own lack of discrimination as to the different realms of 
these laws. The civil law was to be enforced by the 
nation itself, and was evidently designed for the de- 
velopment of the nation, and was the best possible that 
could be self-applied by a low condition to elevate to a 
higher. The result shows this. Only about a dozen 
offenses were punishable by death, a far less number 
than a few years ago were sanctioned by the laws of 
England, when she had left the barbarous stage already 
far behind. Slavery and polygamy were already exist- 
ing institutions, and were so restricted by the civil law 
that at the time of Christ there were few if any 
polygamous or shareholding Jews in Palestine. The 
civil law was the best possible law for that nation in 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. II 

that day, and was wisely designed to lift up towards 
the moral law. 

Infidelity has a great deal to say concerning the 
ceremonial law, and especially concerning the sacrificial 
element in it. They forget that they look upon it from 
a Christian condition where no bloody sacrifices are 
known, a condition that has grown out of that same 
ceremonial law, and is a fulfilment of it. If they would 
look at it from the stand-point of that day and of sur- 
rounding religions, they would see that God restricted 
sacrifices to one place, and prescribed such regulations as 
gave them deep meaning. The ceremonial law taught 
of the holiness of God and of a coming Savior, and was 
designed to provide for restored obedience to the moral 
law. In condemning some of the terrible events in the 
Bible as immoral, infidelity forgets that it is within the 
province of a Law-giver to define and provide for the in- 
fliction of the penalty for the disobedience of the law, 
and so these terrible events set forth the importance of 
the moral law as the law of man's being. 

The fact that this law comes from God, carries with 
it another lesson and one of the utmost importance to 
us — His authority runs through all the divisions of the 
law. This one law is arranged in ten sections, and 
these sections are grouped into two classes. Whatever 
may be said of the relative importance of each table or 
of each commandment in itself, the truth should be 
kept in mind that the authority of God is the same in 
all. 

There is a tendency to separate the two tables. 
Some men seem to rely upon observing the first table 
without much regard to the second, and others claim to 



12 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

keep the second while they ignore the first. No such 
separation can be made. Both must be fully observed 
or the whole law is broken. We cannot be devoted to 
God, correct in matters of faith and zealous in his 
worship, while we neglect charity of feeling, word and 
act toward our neighbor. If God is our Father, man is 
our brother. Neither can we truly love our neighbor 
while we neglect God, for we cannot keep any part of 
the law without supreme reverence for Him who com- 
mands. Neither can we truly love our neighbor with- 
out recognizing that we are both and equally creatures 
of God. If man is our brother, it is because God is our 
Father. Duties to man flow from and are a part of 
duties to God. No worship of God will satisfy his law — 
not even the first table, which is lacking in love to our 
neighbor; and no love to our neighbor will satisfy God's 
law — not even the second table, which is lacking in 
love to Him. Much that goes under the names of piety 
and morality in our day is seen at a glance to be terribly 
defective in the light of this self-evident principle. 

There is a tendency also to separate the command- 
ments, and to claim virtue for keeping some while we 
make light of breaking others. One says: "I sometimes 
swear, when excited, but no man ever could charge me 
with dishonesty." Another says : " I do not make a 
practice of observing the Sabbath, but all men will tell 
you that my word can be relied upon." Now the 
violation of one precept is not an actual violation of 
another, but it is the breaking of the whole law in that 
it sets aside the authority of God. He who breaks one 
command disregards the authority of God. If he keeps 
other commandments, it must be from other considera- 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, 13 

tions. If it was the authority of God which kept him 
from stealing or lying, that same authority would restrain 
him from swearing or Sabbath-breaking. Thus by 
breaking one commandment he shows he has the spirit 
of breaking them all, for he does not submit to the 
authority of God. It is true, the more precepts we keep 
the more valuable men and women we are to the society 
in which we dwell. He who steals is an injury to 
society. He who is honest is so far a blessing. But a 
man may have a kind of honesty without the least 
regard to God, and hence cannot be said to obey even the 
commandment requiring honesty. Such an one, how- 
ever, is not only a better citizen but he honors God to 
this extent, that he approves of that which God com- 
mands. Still he should recognize that he has at heart 
no respect for the authority of God. 

In the preface to the law, God describes himself not 
only as the self-existing Creator, but as having entered 
into close personal relation with the Israelites through 
promises made to their fathers, some of which had just 
been faithfully fulfilled in conferring great blessings 
upon them. So he appeals not only to their respect for 
his authorhvv, but to the relation to him which they 
had inherited and accepted, and to the gratitude they 
should have for such benefits received. This preface 
does not limit the following law to the Israelites, but 
makes a special appeal to them. The law is general, 
for all mankind, the original law of their being, since 
it appeals to and arouses the universal conscience ; but 
a special revelation of God and rich favors bestowed 
form a strong appeal for the most hearty obedience. 
God describes himself to the fall extent in which he 



i 4 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS, 

had at that time revealed himself. Whatever increase 
of revelation we have received strengthens the appeal. 
This shows the kind of obedience we should give ; not 
reluctant, but eager ; not forced, but spontaneous; not 
irksome, but with delight ; not heartless, but with the 
enthusiasm of love. Created things obey the laws of 
their being joyously. Stars shine, flowers bloom, birds 
sing. Surely intelligent beings, recognizing the law of 
their being, should joyously obey it, especially when 
God reveals himself fully and confers richest blessings 
upon them. 

As w T e enter upon the study of each separate com- 
mand, let it be with a firm purpose to seek for the whole 
truth, and with an honest resolution to apply it to our 
own hearts and lives. A knowledge of the revelation 
of God made through Jesus Christ, and a reception of 
the blessings bestowed through him strengthen God's 
claim upon us. The newness of life in Christ is sub- 
ject to this law. The love we bear him, is not an aim- 
less rapture, but the spirit of new obedience, to mani- 
fest itself in keeping his commandments. If we shall 
find that we have in any respect broken this law of 
God, or are prone to break it, let us at once seek for- 
giveness and new life in Jesus Christ. He came to 
save sinners from their sins, to restore them to complete 
and hearty obedience. 



THE FIRST COMMANDMENT. 

" Thou shalt have no other gods before me." — Ex. 20 : 3. 

There is a marked difference between the laws of 
man, though moral, and this law of God. Human laws 
govern outward conduct alone. Man can only take 
notice of the action of his fellow-man, and infer the 
intention from it. But God searches the heart of man. 
His law applies directly to the inner life, the feelings 
and purposes, the disposition and character. This fea- 
ture of the whole law is particularly prominent in this 
first commandment, where no outward act whatever is 
commanded or prohibited, but the soul purely and 
simply is the subject of the law. 

This commandment like many others has the prohib- 
itory form. Wherever this is the case the opposite of 
the thing forbidden is commanded, being guarded by 
the prohibition. Hence we are here commanded to 
give supreme allegiance to and find our highest good in 
God alone. When we give supreme allegiance to and 
find our highest good in any person or thing other than 
God, we make that person or thing our god, and we do 
this of necessity in the presence of God, before his face. 
This idolatry is forbidden. 

It is quite evident without further study that this 
commandment prescribes a general " fitness of things," 
the proper relation of man to God ; aims to promote the 
highest happiness, directing man to seek his good in 
the highest source — God himself; and describes the 

15 



16 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

nature of man, setting forth a great principle of his 
being, that lie is capable of giving allegiance to God, 
has faculties and powers capable of knowing and lov- 
ing God. 

This commandment at once arouses the conscience 
with the claim that our first duty is not to oursel-ves, 
not even to our neighbors, but to our God. The awak- 
ened conscience says : " That is right. He made me 
and continues me in being. My chief duty is not to 
myself but to Him. He made and continues my fellow- 
men in being. He places us in these relations of life. 
My first duty is not to them, but to Him." It is not 
then a little thing to neglect God, as so many seem to 
think. It violates and degrades a foundation principle 
of our nature — it is failure in the principal duty of 
life. 

The Egyptians and the neighboring nations, when this 
law was given, worshiped many diverse imaginary 
beings, the creations of their own fancy, as gods. This 
commandment was directly opposed to this prevailing 
practice, strictly prohibited it, and commanded the 
worship of the one true God. Wherever it has been 
generally received the worship of such imaginary beings 
has ceased, and with us is entirely unknown. To this 
extent the commandment seems to have accomplished 
its purpose. It is generally conceded now that there 
are not more gods than one, the true and living God. 
That He exists is the only explanation of our own exist- 
ence. Conscious of the one, we are sure of the other. 

Our power of knowing and loving Him is the dis- 
tinguishing power of man, separating him from the 
brutes with whom he is in many other-respects allied. 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. iy 

Not to exercise this power is to cast away the crown of 
our manhood. God dignified man in the highest degree 
when he gave him this commandment. He calls him to 
the highest realm of knowledge, the knowledge of Him- 
self. Of course we cannot know God fully. Our weak, 
limited minds cannot comprehend the Infinite One. 
Shall we therefore claim He is unknowable, and refuse to 
affirm or deny anything concerning his existence and 
character ? As well might the child, who fails to put the 
ocean into the hole he has dug in the sand, look wise 
and say, " Well then, there is no ocean." The truths 
above and beyond us, whose greatness may not be 
understood. but can be acknowledged, sway and elevate 
us. Not that which we can comprehend, but that which 
comprehends us ; not that which our little minds can 
hold, but that which fills them and holds them — the 
height of the mountain beyond where we can climb ; the 
expanse of the ocean beyond our power of vision ; the 
distance of the stars beyond the flight of our imagina- 
tion — these fill the mind with awe ; we are in the pres- 
ence of the sublime. If we could comprehend God we 
would be greater than He. The unknowable in God 
leads us to worship the God we know. This command 
calls us to a constant advance in the knowledge of God, 
so securing the activit}^ and development of our power 
of knowing, and making it our duty to carefully attend 
to the revelation He has made of Himself. 

This certainly commends the study of Nature ; not 
only the poetic listening to its subtile teachings, but 
the scientific research for its great truths. While it 
cannot be claimed that some scientific theories have any 
respect for this commandment, it is certainly to be 
2 



1 8 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

acknowledged that the earnest search of science for 
truth is to that extent a keeping of the law. To 
neglect this great realm where God has expressed so 
many of His great thoughts, where He has so clearly 
revealed " His eternal power and God-head," is con- 
demned as indifference to the knowledge of Himself. 

This certainly commends the study of the Scriptures. 
These claim to contain a special revelation of God. To 
give a fair investigation to this claim, and an earnest 
effort to understand this special revelation, is to that 
extent a keeping of the law. Every neglected Bible 
should thrill the conscience with the charge, " You have 
not yet taken the first step towards obeying this com- 
mandment." 

God's revelation of Himself in the Holy Scriptures is 
progressive. It had reached a certain stage at the time 
the law was given at Sinai, sufficiently clear and full to 
make man's duty plain. But it did not stop there. It 
unfolded through succeeding ages until* it culminated in 
the Lord Jesus Christ. So this first commandment 
makes it our duty to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
To reject Christ is not merely to reject an offer of 
mercy. It is to refuse to receive the complete revela- 
tion of God made in His Son. It is to say, "We will 
not have this God revealed in Christ as our God." But 
there is no other God. We are to know God as 
revealed in Nature, in His Law, in the Holy Scriptures, 
and in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the one living 
and true God. 

Now, man is capable of closer relationship to God 
than mere knowledge of His existence and character. 
He has powers of loving God, of coming into the closest 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 1 9 

personal fellowship with God. This will in its exercise 
make more intimate and full our knowledge of Him. 
You know of the existence of the president of the 
nation and something of his character by his acts and 
general reputation. The knowledge you have of the 
man you are well acquainted with is more full and 
accurate. But this knowledge is surpassed by that you 
have of your friend. Your love for him clearly dis- 
cerns qualities which his love for you frankly reveals. 
You know his real worth and highly value your rela- 
tionship to him. It is to such intimate knowledge of 
love, to such fellowship of love, that God calls us by the 
power He has given us, and by this commandment. 
He reveals Himself as a person, in personal relationship 
with man, as possessing in Himself qualities of charac- 
ter worthy of our love, and as being desirous of pur 
love, a revelation shining in this commandment as it 
does in all nature and in Scripture, and especially in 
him "who is the image of the invisible God." Our 
highest duty and real nobility are to give Him supreme 
allegiance and find our highest good in Him alone, the 
love recognizing and responding to the loveliness of 
God, the love that completely trusts Him, and finds its 
highest delight in Him. 

The prohibitory form of the commandment further 
shows that there are tendencies in our nature to break 
this law of our being. We are prone to give supreme 
allegiance to and find our highest good in some person 
or thing other than God. Humiliating as it may be, a 
little reflection will force us to confess that the com- 
mandment is right in taking this form, that these ten- 
dencies exist, and that they are so strong that they have 



THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

often led us and do still lead us to break the law. 
Wherever this written commandment is not known in the 
world to-day men are worshiping imaginary beings as 
t heir gods. The principle of our nature as God created 
it, the power of knowing and loving Him, has been 
overruled by these tendencies, which from some source 
or other, certainly not from God, have come upon us. 

Neither are we free from these tendencies though we 
have the knowledge of His law. Are we not prone to 
ignore God, or to rest with an insufficient knowledge of 
Him, or to imagine Him other than he has revealed him- 
self? Do not the fields of even religious controversy 
afford sad evidence of the tendency to magnify some 
one or more features of His character out of proportion 
with all the others, so making a caricature of Him ? 
The superstition of worshiping imaginar}* gods has 
passed away, but that of attributing effects to things 
with which there is not the slightest evidence of their 
having any connection, still lingers. There is quite a 
prevalent opinion that Friday is an unlucky day, and 
that it is unlucky to see the new moon over the left 
shoulder, and many who speak light of it still are 
influenced by it. How a horse-shoe became a symbol 
of good luck, I do not know. Perhaps from the old 
belief that a hot horse-shoe would drive a witch out of 
a churn, and now this symbol is nailed to the masts of 
many vessels sailing our rivers, and over the doors of 
many of our houses, and many young people are yery 
careful to stand directly under a floral horse-shoe as 
they enter the married life. Of course all fear of ill 
luck and all hope of good luck as dependent upon any 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 21 

such things are the opposite of trusting in God, "our 
Sun and Shield." 

Fortune-tellers still live, and live off their victims 
whom they torment with foolish hopes or causeless 
fears. What reason is there to believe that the devil 
knows anything about our future, or that God who 
hides it from us would reveal it to a fortune-teller ? 
Those who are sick with complicated diseases or 
involved in perplexing troubles sometimes consult clair- 
voyants, whose astounding claim of possessing a sense 
other than the senses and reasoning power of ordinary 
men is sustained alone by a few happy conjectures and 
a great amount of clap-trap. Surely to consult them is 
a belief in their possessing supernatural power without 
a particle of evidence — to that extent a kindred super- 
stition with the belief in imaginary gods. Spiritualism, 
too, in our day enchains many dupes, an attempt to 
learn of the spirit world by communication with 
departed spirits, brought about by the aid of mediums 
whose base tricks have been so often exposed. God 
gives us present duty and all the light we need about 
the future, about the nature of present trouble and the 
conditions of the spirit world. Obedience to Him and 
complete trust in His wisdom and love will free us from 
all fortune-telling, clairvoyance and spiritualism ; they 
would have no more influence upon us than do the 
almost forgotten gods of high Olympus. That these 
superstitions still linger in our day, and are present to 
some extent in our minds, shows that the prohibitory 
form of this commandment is still needed by us. 

But even if we had full and accurate knowledge of 
the one true God, and were free from all debasing 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

superstitions, we would still have tendencies drawing 
us away from entire consecration to Him. Alas! there 
are other idolatries besides trust in imaginary gods, or 
in false conceptions of the true God. Whatever we 
value more than God, and delight in more than we 
delight in Him, is our god. Wherever a man makes 
the gratification of himself his chief aim, he takes the 
crown belonging to God and crowns himself. He is his 
own god — a kind of idolatry to which, I fear, we will 
all have to confess a great proneness. 

There is a strong tendency to make the gratification 
of even the lowest portion of our nature our chief aim 
and greatest delight. We are not yet free from the 
danger of belonging to the class the Apostle describes 
in such plain words, " whose god is their belly," which 
includes not only gluttons and drunkards, but all those 
who, however refined the way, make sensual enjoyment 
their highest good. It is obvious this not only dishon- 
ors God but degrades man, and deprives him of the 
highest happiness even in his lower nature. He only 
can have the highest animal enjoyment who remembers 
that he is more than an animal, and, honoring God, 
seeks to discover and obey His laws of healthful living. 

One would think that the exercise of our reasoning 
powers would lead the soul to God, yet there is a very 
strong tendency to make this exercise end in itself. 
Many of the great thinkers of the world have been 
worshipers of their own powers of thinking, and we 
who can with difficulty follow their great thoughts are 
prone to worship our own intellectual culture and 
acquirements, and to claim a considerable amount of 
incense from our fellow men. Centering in itself — mak- 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 23 

ing the intellectual life our highest good — debars the 
intellect from its highest attainment, which can only 
come from following the thoughts of God up to the 
knowledge of Himself. 

How prone we are to make our loved ones idols ! 
Now the idolatry of loved ones does not consist in lov- 
ing them too much, but in not loving them enough. 
God gives us our home, " the dearest spot on earth," he 
gives us our loved ones and us to them and continues 
us to each other, and he makes us spiritual beings hav- 
ing the power of loving and being worthy of the love 
of each other. Loving each other truly we are learn- 
ing to love God. It is safe to say that the father who 
allows his child to so absorb his love that he has no 
thought of or love for God, does not love his child as an 
immortal spiritual being, nor does he regard himself as 
such. His idolatry degrades himself and his child as 
well as dishonors God. 

Above the animal, the intellectual and the social 
nature in man, is the spiritual. To ignore this nature 
or dwarf it is to degrade man. To have this nature in 
healthful control and giving supreme allegiance to God, 
is to bring the whole man into obedience to this com- 
mandment; is to ennoble his social, inspire his intellec- 
tual, and elevate his animal natures; is to reach the noble 
manhood God designs for us. Lovers of personal dis- 
play, of fine dress and jewels, lovers of money, little or 
much, the grasping to have or to hold, lovers of our- 
selves in whatever direction — how wide the contrast 
between all such and lovers of God ! Alas, my broth- 
ers, to which of these contrasted classes are we most 
prone? See, too, the greatness of the sin. God, who 



24 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

made us, and continues us in being, and constantly 
blesses us, and who has a right to our service — God, 
avIio is the best of beings, who is worthy of our service 
— God, who commands and so greatly desires our serv- 
ice, is neglected, and some object which has no right, 
is not worthy and cannot appreciate our service, is ele- 
vated to his throne. And although we may not fully 
recognize the greatness of our sin, God knows what 
unworthy object has taken His rightful place in our 
affections. It is obvious likewise that the only possi- 
ble way of being freed from the degradation and misery 
of such sin is to have the proper relation of man to 
God fully re-established. 

It is claimed by some that the Lord Jesus Christ has 
abolished the Ten Commandments. On the contrary 
Christ claims that he came not to destroy but to fulfill the 
law. The law can give no ability to keep it — that is not 
its province. It shows the rule of duty, awakens the con- 
science, holds before us God's lofty ideal, incites all the 
power within us to highest action ; but here its mission 
ends. It evokes all the power within, but confers no 
power from without. The same thing is true of the 
teaching and example of Christ. However high and 
noble they are, even perfect, they are limited in their 
effect by the capacity of the disciple. They incite, 
they draw out all the power within, but they give no 
ability to attain, they confer no power from without. 
Now Christ brings to us power from without, the power 
we need. lt The law was given by Moses, but grace and 
truth came by Jesus Christ." Christ reveals and brings 
to us the true nature of God, the grace we need, for- 
giving sin and conferring new life. The teaching and 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 2$ 

example of Christ and the law they so clearly set forth 
should lead us to see our sinfulness and to seek forgive- 
ness and new life in Christ ; and this new life in Christ 
follows his teaching and example to the complete keep- 
ing of the law. That it obeys the law not reluctantly 
but heartily so much the more honors the law. The 
skilled carpenter loving his work does not have to be 
told how to hold his plane as does the obstinate appren- 
tice, but nevertheless he holds it according to the rule, 
and the more thoroughly since he does not regard it a 
hardship but a pleasure. Christ abolish this command- 
ment! and God no longer claim the highest place in 
man's thoughts and affections ! No, never ! Man may 
degrade himself, but God will never degrade him. 
Christ came bringing divine power to restore man from 
degradation to the high nobility of keeping this com- 
mandment. His glorious work is not to set it aside, 
but to reestablish it as the rule of life to all his follow- 
ers. Now we shall see that the remaining command- 
ments of the first table not merely follow this first one, 
but so flow from it and are so vitally related with it, 
that what is so obviously true of it is true also of them, 
and that Christ instead of abolishing any of them has 
glorified them all. May we so believe in Christ and so 
regard the law that it shall become more and more our 
delight to do the will of God ! 

Now as we separate from one another, let us 
each one take with us the impressive truth that God 
speaks in this commandment not only to the race of 
men, but to each member of the race ; that He selects 
each one us, and addresses us personally, " Thou shalt 
have no other gods before me." It is as if each one of 
us stood alone before God. 



THE SECOND COMMANDMENT. 

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any like- 
ness of any thing that is in heaven above or that is in the earth 
beneath, or that is in the water under the eaith. Thou shalt not 
bow down thyself to them nor serve them : for I, the Lord thy God, 
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the 
children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me : 
aud showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them that 
love me and keep my commandments." — Ex. 20 : 4 — 6. 

Inscriptions in hieroglyphics and pictures on the mon- 
uments and tombs of Egypt, recently discovered and 
deciphered, confirm the Bible history that the ancient 
Egyptians were idolaters. Surrounding nations were 
also idolaters. There was a strong tendency in the 
Israelites, by their own confession, to idolatry. This 
religious condition was not local and temporary, we 
may rather say it was constant and universal. History 
tells but one story, that in former times all the tribes 
and nations of men were idolaters, that they worshiped 
imaginary gods by means of images, and to a great 
extent the images themselves. This religious condition 
prevailing in former times prevails as well to-day. With 
the exception of three large classes our fellow men have 
been in all the past and are to-day idolaters. 

How can this strong tendency to idolatry be ex- 
plained? One class of thinkers, rejecting the Bible 
account, say that man's original condition was dense 
ignorance, and that the various systems of idolatry are 
his groping after the idea of God, until at length he 
reaches the idea of a supreme spiritual Being. Some 
26 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 2J 

of these thinkers say there is such a Being, whom man 
has at length discovered : others hold that there is no 
such Being, that man has only obtained by all his feeble 
groping an idea. These evolution thinkers have 
evolved their theories out of their own brains without 
the slightest basis of fact. There is no evidence that 
such a process is going on among the heathen nations 
to-day. Some of these nations are highly gifted intel- 
lectually, and on this theory ought to have come to the 
worship of one God long before this. Neither is there 
any evidence of any people ever having lifted themselves 
out of idolatry. Nations have grafted other systems on 
to their own, their intellectual leaders have become 
skeptical with regard to the whole matter, here and 
there an individual has seemed to grasp the idea of one 
God, but no large class of men — certainly no nation — 
has ever cast aside idolatry for the worship of one God. 
The three large classes of men, some embracing nations, 
who in the past and now worship one God without the 
use of images, the Jews, the Christians, and the 
Mohammedans, all trace this distinguishing trait to 
these Ten Commandments. This commandment shows 
no trace of feeling its way to the true God and grad- 
ually casting off features of idolatry, but existing in 
that early age of dense idolatry it with the utmost pre- 
cision prohibits the whole system. The worship of the 
one God is not therefore a growth from within, but a 
lifting up from without ; not an evolution from idolatry, 
but a revelation from heaven. 

The only other conceivable explanation of the uni- 
versal tendency of the race to idolatry is that of the 
Bible. It teaches that idolatry is the willful departure 



28 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

of a sinful race from the worship and knowledge of the 
true God ; that having the knowledge of the true God 
from nature they refused to honor him, but changed 
the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of 
an image of corruptible man, and of birds and four- 
footed beasts and creeping things ; they refused to 
retain God in their knowledge and made this base ex- 
change. The tendency reveals the effort of the sinful 
heart to get rid of the moral excellencies of a spiritual 
God. Men were held in restraint by the thought of a 
spiritual Being infinitely above the appetites and 
passions of a sensual life, so they put him out of their 
minds. They could not banish the thought of the 
divine power, nor was there much reason for such an 
effort, but they succeeded largely in banishing 
the thought of the divine holiness. The gods 
they worshiped had like appetites and passions 
with themselves. The fleshly nature in man could 
degrade the spiritual but one degree further, compel it 
to bow down to objects of sense, to images. The edu- 
cated among idolaters claim that they do not worship 
the image or thing but the being or power dwelling 
in the thing or represented by the image, but the mass 
of the people worship the image itself. While idolatry 
thus expresses the moral condition of the people, and 
confirms it, the various systems also show the intel- 
lectual endowment of the different nations. In some 
of these systems there are distinct traces of the idea of 
a Supreme Being, though he is not perfect, nor is the 
highest worship given to him ; but these traces grow 
faint in other systems, showing greater intellectual and 
moral degradation. But the spiritual in man still 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 29 

exists. It is not destroyed by sin, only degraded. It 
cannot get rid of the truth inwrought in its nature, 
u There is a God whom I must worship." The fleshly 
nature ma}^ say, " Well, then worship through me, and 
in the way I dictate," but can go no further. Man is 
a spiritual being, he has gods of some kind, the most 
degraded people still have their idols : he is a moral 
being, the effort to throw off restraint shows it. The 
commingling voices of the tribes and nations of men in 
all ages speak the clear and distinct confession, " There 
is a God," though it can be heard only as an undertone 
to the tumultuous and sullen roar of the race, " We 
will not have the true God to reign over us." 

That idolatry arises from the sinful nature of man, 
explains the fact also that those people who have had 
a revelation of the true God long continued to them 
have constantly manifested a tendency to fall back into 
it. The Israelites corrupted themselves with idolatry 
at the foot of Mount Sinai, and after they were settled 
in their own land they frequently fell into the worship 
of the idols of the neighboring nations. The Christian 
Church also showed the same tendency very early in 
her history. She brought images and pictures to orna- 
ment her church buildings, to instruct the ignorant, and 
to incite the devout spirit in the worship of the true 
God. The images of Christ and the Apostles, of the 
Virgin Mary and the Saints, are now so used in the 
Roman Catholic Church. But while this use of the 
images may be claimed by the intelligent and by the 
councils of the Church, and while the worship given to 
the Saints may in their view and practice be far inferior 
to that given to God, still this practice so explained is 



30 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

a decided drift perilously near to the verge of idolatry, 
and it is to be feared that large numbers of the less 
intelligent and devout have gone over the verge and 
that the constant tendency is in that direction. 

This commandment is expressed in the prohibitory 
form. We have seen the decided tendency in fallen 
human nature it is designed to check. Now turn to 
the positive command. We find it expressed clearly 
and concisely by our Savior : " God is a Spirit, and 
they that worship him must worship in spirit and in 
truth." Prohibiting bodily prostration to a visible idol, 
it commands spiritual worship of the invisible God. 
Our old English word, " worship," brings out the idea 
of the spirit's attitude to God strongly and beautifully. 
It is a combination of the words "worth" and "ship" 
or " shape." Man, a spiritual being, is to be brought 
into a shape worthy of God, the Spirit. Two highly 
important truths are embraced in this statement. The 
first is that the spirit in man is to be in a shape worthy 
of God. Tins can only be when it is in full harmony 
with God, when it possesses moral likeness to him. 
The second is that the whole man is to be in a shape 
worthy of God, that his spirit possessing moral likeness 
to God is to be in full and constant command of the 
whole man. The man is not to be ruled by his animal 
nature, nor by his intellectual nature, nor even by his 
social and domestic nature, but by his spiritual nature : 
and this enthroned spiritual nature is to shine in the 
likeness to God. 

Surety here is a great commandment. It describes 
the nature of man as coming pure from the Creator's 
hand, and as the Redeemer designs to restore it. It 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 31 

shows the noble ideal God still holds before man and 
the high happiness he desires for him, when all his 
varied powers shall be in full and harmonious exercise 
in the worship of himself, a spirit possessing the highest 
moral excellence. We are commanded to ever hold 
aloft the thought of God in our minds ; infinitely above 
all the things our senses behold, which are the creations 
of his power. He exists, a pure spirit, of absolutely 
perfect character. We are to so reverence, adore and 
love Him that we give Him the highest honor possible 
from created spirits, that of growing like Him in char- 
acter. We are to give Him this worship so thoroughly 
that all our lower powers are enlisted in it and con- 
stantly under its control and so become spiritually 
ennobled. The man in shape worthy of God ; this is 
the highest " fitness of things " among the powers within 
the man, his highest blessedness, his noblest being, and 
this God requires of us. It is obvious that the ten- 
dency to have the fleshly nature assume the ascendency 
over the spiritual, is not confined to heathen lands. To 
be inconstant in the worship of God, confining our 
attempted adoration of Him to stated times, to be con- 
tented with the formal acts of his worship, and to neg- 
lect His worship altogether, are some of the ways in 
which it manifests itself. 

The commandment is of such vital importance, and 
the tendency to transgress it is so strong, that God has 
added to it a most solemn appeal which demands our 
careful attention. God declares himself a jealous God. 
We are to leave out of consideration all low features 
frequently associated with human jealousy — there can 
be no envy, nor unjust suspicion, nor selfishness, nor 



32 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

anything unworthy in the jealousy of God. A father 
has with great love and care trained his children in 
virtue, and a corrupt and fascinating youth seeks com- 
panionship with them. The father guards his children 
with jealousy against such influence. A husband loves 
his wife, and a corrupt and fascinating man seeks her 
societ}\ The husband guards with jealous care the wife 
he loves. Not only, or even mainly does the father, or 
husband, think of his own honor, but mainly of the 
welfare of dear ones. Jealousy seeks to guard the 
children and the wife from degradation and ruin. So 
God, the great Father, the loving Husband of his peo- 
ple, guards not his own honor only, but therein and 
mainly the welfare of those he loves against a fascinat- 
ing corruption which would degrade and ruin them. 
" I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." 

This feature of his character is seen in his visiting 
punishment for disobedience and rewards for obe- 
dience through successive generations. The appeal is 
to one of the strongest and noblest emotions in man, 
his love for his children. Fathers, guard against the 
tendency to idolatry ! It will degrade you not only, 
but your children. Fathers, bring yourselves into a 
shape worthy of God! Worship Him in spirit and in 
truth ! It will ennoble you not only, but your children. 
Under the government of God the race of man exists 
in successive generations, and one generation receives 
from those that have passed not merely its being, but 
largely its character and conditions. The character is 
not received, however, to such a degree as to interfere 
with responsibility nor to preclude great changes, nor 
are the conditions fixed. Each generation may reject 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 33 

the evil and retain the good of its inheritance, may 
advance to greater good, and may then transmit its 
improved character and conditions to its successor. 
Under this feature of the divine government the race 
of man is distinguished from animals and may make 
progress. The beaver builds his dam as at the first, so 
the bee builds the cell for honey ; both are marvels of 
construction, but no progress, no improvement is ever 
made. While if our fathers of but two generations 
back should return and visit our harvest fields and 
barns, astonishment at new methods of gathering and 
storing harvests would fill their minds, an astonishment 
which would vastly increase as they learned of railroads 
and steamships, of telegraph and telephone. The gen- 
eration to-day enjoys the inheritance of liberty and free 
government won by our fathers on the battle-fields of 
the Revolution. The generation just taking the lead in 
the nation's life rejoices in a united and prosperous 
country, the inheritance which the generation fast pass- 
ing away secured by toil and heroic self-sacrifice. 
Should great dangers threaten us now, what would be 
a strong appeal to patriotism ? Let us defend the 
inheritance we have received from heroic fathers and 
transmit it unimpaired and greatly improved to our 
children — an appeal against low and selfish ease to 
noble manhood in a virtuous cause. This is the appeal 
of this commandment on the highest plane of man's 
well-being. 

This feature of the divine government embraces indi- 
viduals as well as great classes of men, and should be very 
solemnly considered by each one of us. A man chooses 
a vicious life. He therein impairs his constitution, 
3 



34 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

ruins his reputation and squanders his property. The 
awful consequences of his sin do not end with himself. 
The wife and mother, while she shares them to some 
extent, may be of reverse character and so counteract 
largely the evil among the children. But she may be 
weak, or possibly of the same character. The strong 
tendency will be for the children to have the same 
vicious character, the impaired constitution, certainly the 
ruined reputation and the poverty. Certainly if there 
remains a spark of love in that man's heart for his wife 
and children, the appeal of this law is that he should 
reconsider his choice of a vicious life. There seem to 
be three great principles in steady action in the race and 
among individuals : the principle of heredity, of physi- 
cal and mental and moral qualities of parents — the prin- 
ciple of influence, by the example and teaching accord- 
ing to the character of the parents — and the principle of in- 
heritance of the conditions and surroundings made by the 
parents in the society where they dwell. Whether these 
great principles shall work disastrously or benefically, is 
for us to choose. Consider the two classes described in 
the commandment : " Them that hate me." Sin is no 
light thing. In its essence it is hatred of God, and so 
has terrible consequences. " Them that love me and 
keep my commandments." Love him who has highest 
excellence. Keep his commandments which are good 
and lead to noble well-being. It is for us to choose, and 
we choose not only for ourselves, but largely for our 
children. 

Look carefully now at a very important feature of the 
appeal which is not brought out clearly in our English 
translation. He visits iniquity "unto the third and 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 35 

fourth " and shows mercy u unto the thousandth," the 
commandment reads. Our translators have supplied 
the word " generation " in italics to the first numeral, 
and evidently they were right in doing so, but they 
should have supplied for the same reasons the same word 
to the second numeral : " He visits iniquity unto the 
third and fourth generation" " He shows mercy unto 
the thousandth generation:' The third and fourth show 
an indefinite number, the thousandth is also an indefi- 
nite number, but it is a much larger number. The prin- 
ciple of the divine government has a very decided lean- 
ing to the side of mercy. 

Now perhaps you will say : " I see that this feature 
of the divine government works with absolute imparti- 
ality, with strict justice, but I can see no indication of 
its leaning to the side of mercy." Then look again and 
more closely at the race and the individual. Look at 
the individual first. A child inherits an impaired con- 
stitution. Two features of the divine government 
respond at once. First, the restorative forces within the 
child, the recuperative powers of man's nature ; and 
second, the restorative forces without, the whole realm 
of remedies and skill awakened in others in their appli- 
cation. The child of ignorant parents is ignorant. Two 
features here also are on the side of mercy. The innate 
thirst of the mind for knowledge, present though weak 
in the child ; and the intelligence of the community in 
which the child lives, the atmosphere of enlightenment 
which he must breathe while he lives. The child of 
irreligious parents is irreligious. Here, too, there are 
two principles on the side of mercy. However corrupt 
he may be there is something in the soul of the child 



36 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

at unrest for God which may be touched into power ; 
and the surrounding Christianity — the Christ who has 
loved and died to save — lives in many believing hearts 
through whom he seeks 10 save the child. 

Now, concerning the race it may be said that the limit 
of degradation seems to be fixed, but the limit of progress 
cannot be even imagined. How far man will advance 
in the control and use of the powers of nature, we who 
witness to-day the stupendous achievements of Chris- 
tian civilization will not even dare to conjecture. And 
how far man will be lifted up, in the knowledge and fel- 
lowship of God, the Bible tells us that we cannot even 
imagine. In the whole race also the two principles we 
have seen working in individuals on the side of mercy 
exist. However corrupted in idolatry men may become, 
however great the ascendency of the flesh over the spirit 
in man, the spirit still exists and in its very nature 
cannot be satisfied until it finds and lays hold upon the 
living God. There is something within men that can- 
not be satisfied with idolatry, or with sensual corrup- 
tion, something that may be touched into strong and 
glorious life. And there is something to touch it. God 
makes the appeal of his infinite love in Jesus Christ, 
who has at infinite cost taken away sin and brought in 
new life to all who receive him. And we who receive 
him, as he lives in us, will touch all the dark souls we 
can reach with his light and life. Our fathers were idol- 
ators under the gloomy German forests and on the 
stormy shores of England. Their spirits were touched 
by the love of God in Christ and they turned from idols to 
the worship of the true God. We have received from them 
the elevation and happiness of our. Christian land. Let 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 37 

us cherish and transmit to our children the glorious 
inheritance, and let us send the light into the whole 
earth. Let us, receiving forgiveness and new life in our 
Savior, bring our whole being into a shape worthy of 
God in moral likeness. This will be for the highest wel- 
fare of our own souls, of our children, of our land, and 
of the world. 



THE THIRD COMMANDMENT. 

" Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain : for 
the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh bis name in vain." — 
Ex. 20 : 7 

The law of Gocl is designed to exercise control over 
the whole man. It would be very imperfect if it did 
not govern his speech. By speech man expresses the 
condition of his mind and heart, and such expression 
generally tends to strengthen that condition. By 
speech he influences his fellow man. The command- 
ments not merely follow one the other, but are closely 
related with each other. One flows from the other and 
leads on to the next until we see the whole nature of 
man under the reign of one law. The first precept 
commands us to have the true God alone for our God. 
The second precept commands us to worship the true 
God who is a spirit in spirit and in truth. These two 
commands tell us how we ought to think and feel to- 
ward God. If there was but one individual man in 
existence, and he was speechless, these commands would 
describe his nature and make plain his duty. It would 
be right for him to hold God supreme, and to have his 
spirit in a shape worthy of God in moral likeness and 
in control of all his powers. Now the third command 
shows man at the head of the material creation with the 
crowning glory of intelligent speech, and as a social 
being possessing the power of speech as the highest 
instrument of his social nature. God reveals himself to 

38 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 39 

him by word, by name, as to a speaking being, making 
language a bond of union between Him and man. God 
commands him to use this great gift in his worship, in 
honoring Him. 

The tongue is the glory of man, and the glory of the 
tongue is to voice the praises of God. All nature praises 
God as it obeys his laws. The sun and the stars in 
their courses praise Him in notes of light— music our 
dull ears may not hear. The earth with her myriad 
voices praises Him ; the deep-toned ocean, the quiet 
music of the streams, the gentle notes of the winds, the 
storms with thunder peals, unite in a grand hymn of 
praise ; but it is unintelligent. The birds with sweet 
songs greet the morning light, and all the creatures of 
God lift up their voices to Him ; but this praise of 
animate creation lacks intelligence. Man stands at the 
head of creation to take up its many notes of praise and 
give them intelligent utterance. He stands thus not as 
a single individual, a great High Priest, but as a race 
whose myriad voices are to join and mingle in a vast 
chorus of intelligent and harmonious praise. We are 
to speak of Him and to Him with adoration. He is our 
Creator, Preserver, Governor and Judge. We are to 
speak of Him and to Him with love and praise. Our 
lips should quiver with emotion when we speak of Him 
who is our Father, and our Savior. We are to speak to 
Him in His worship, and of Him to each other onty in 
such a way as shall promote His worship in our own hearts 
and in the hearts of others. These three commands 
show God's ideal of man unfolding as they advance. 
Man is to give his allegience to God alone, is to be in 
character worthy of God, and this character is to ex- 



40 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

press itself in such speech as shall praise God, confirm 
itself and foster the same character among one's fellows. 

The command is in the prohibition form. Man has 
broken this law, and is prone to break it. His voice is 
silent often when it should be praising God. Alas ! it 
is often used to speak lightly of God. All irreverent 
or vain use of God's name is forbidden. 

A name is that word which calls to mind the thing or 
person named. The name " stone " sets apart a certain 
kind of thing from all other things. When we use it or 
hear it we do not think of a tree or of anything else but 
that single kind of thing. So the name " man " calls 
to mind a particular kind of being, and no other. So 
the name of an individual calls to mind a person 
separate from all others. The name of God therefore 
is that word or those descriptive words which call to 
mind the Being named. So I cannot speak the name 
of God without referring directly to the person who 
bears it ; and if others hear me I bring before their 
thought that one person, and no other. Hence the 
Bible usage is that the name of God equals Himself — 
to call upon the name of the Lord is to call upon the 
Lord. 

One vain use of God's name is calling Him to bear 
witness to a falsehood; and a reverent use of His name 
is calling Him to witness to the truth in an important 
matter. Oaths on proper occasions are commanded in 
the Scripture and sanctioned by the example of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, who when put under oath by the 
High Priest declared that he was the Son of God. 
Oaths are demanded in courts of law, that the witness 
will tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 4 1 

truth. He calls upon God who knows the truth and 
who hears what he says to judge him as he speaks. He 
declares that he testifies not merely before the human 
court, but before the great Judge of all. If he lies he lies 
not only to man but to God. It is an act therefore of the 
greatest solemnity. The oath should be administered 
reverently. I have often heard the clerk of the court 
run over the form hastily and slightingly as if it was 
of no consequence, a meaningless ceremony. Such con- 
duct is insulting to God and calculated to defeat the 
aims of justice. However administered when we are 
placed under oath we should feel all the solemnity of an 
act of worship of God. Oaths are often required by 
law in connection with a promise, as of an officer enter- 
ing upon his office. The officer promises to faithfully 
discharge the duties of his office, and then calls upon 
God who will witness every act of his life to be the 
Judge of his faithfulness. 

An appeal to God to bear witness to the truth of our 
declarations and to the faithful performance of our 
promises may be made not only when required by law 
but when justified by the importance of the case. But 
of this we should be very cautious. The matter should 
be of such great importance to the glory of God and to 
the welfare of man, that the appeal to God is made an 
act of solemn worship. Of course the promise must be 
for something lawful. A man making a promise con- 
firmed by an oath to do something wrong, is in no way 
bound to do that thing, for the simple reason that no 
man can bring himself under an obligation to do wrong. 
The making of the promise was wrong and calls for 
repentance; the taking of an oath upon such a promise, 



4- 



THE TEX COM MAXDMEXTS . 



important as it may be, even if it extends to the half of 
l's kingdom, is wrong, and calls for repentance. 
It is taking God's name in vain to ask Him to witness 
our wrong doing. It is not likely that the importance 
of a private matter will ever make it our duty to appeal 
to God, but we are at any time liable to be called as 
witnesses in courts of law, 01 to serve on juries, or in 
some public office. We should have clear views of the 
oaths we may be required to take. They are solemn 
acts wherein we appeal to God to hold us to a strict 
account. We call upon Him to witness that we will 
be truthful and faithful, and to judge us according to 
our action in His sight. 

While it is clear that the taking of the name of God in 
vain applies to false swearing in important matters, it is 
as clear that it ar plies to the whole awful field of pro- 
fanity — the trivial, rash, and cursing use of the name of 
God in ordinary conversation, which is the reverse of 
honoring God in our speech. The minister probably 
hears less swearing than any man in the community. 
Profane persons seem to have more respect for him than 
they have for God. and if they venture on an oath it is 
with bated breath ; and yet the minister hears enough 
of it to know that the sin is terribly prevalent even in 
this Christian community. A man uses the name of 
God as an exclamation of surprise at some trivial thing 
or assertion of another, or to sustain some unimportant 
statement of his own. Generally he is a frequenter of 
rum-shops; sometimes he is otherwise respectable. 
Sometimes a story is dull and the story-teller seasons it 
with a few oaths, or some joke is without point and so 
a curse is used to awaken a laugh. Man calls God to 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 43 

make sport for him. A man has become accustomed to 
exaggerate or to speak falsely, and conscious that others 
hesitate to believe him he continually calls upon the 
truth-loving God to witness to his lies. Sometimes one 
becomes heated in argument or angry under contradic- 
tion or in a quarrel, and he calls upon God to curse him 
if he is not right, or in his anger he calls upon God to 
curse the one who irritates him. Sometimes he so loses 
control of himself that curses pour out of his lips as dense 
smoke out of a chimney. 

But the swearer tries to excuse himself: "I did not 
mean it. I was only in fun." There are some things 
not the proper subjects of fun. Surely a man ought 
not to make fun of God, or of invoking the wrath of 
God upon himself or others. But the swearer says : 
" It is a relief for me to swear. It cools off my heated 
spirits." Often it is the reverse, added fuel to the 
flame, not only to himself but to others, especially those 
he curses. But if it is a relief, what is it a relief of? 
It is a relief to the storm-cloud to throw out its light- 
nings, because it is over-charged with electricity. So 
it is a relief for you to throw out your cursing because 
you are over-charged with cursing. Your heart is so 
full of hatred that when stirred in anger it overflows in 
curses. My brother, you had far better bring such a heart 
to God with a strong cry for mercy. Again the swearer 
says : " I know it is wrong, but it is a habit I have fallen 
into to such an extent that I often swear without know- 
ing it." Do you not see that habit does not excuse but 
rather aggravates the offense? No one can become 
wicked at once. Your habit only shows how often you 
have sinned, how far you have gone down in this kind 



44 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

of wickedness. Again the swearer says : " I may as 
well say it as to think it." You should not think an 
oath or curse. But it is worse to speak it. The letter 
of the law forbids the word, and so checks the evil in 
the heart, and at any rate prevents its injuring others. 
You gain inward control by outward control. Come 
toward the spirit of the law, checking the thought by 
obeying the letter. You keep yourself also from being 
a curse. The swearer is a moral blight in a community, 
his oath-speaking is a spreading infection, he is himself 
a curse to others. Few, if any, ever began swearing 
but from imitation. Profanity is a contagion in the 
sound waves of the air. By checking the oath at the 
lips you prevent the spread of the evil. 

We should be on our guard against the insidious 
beginnings of this sin. There are b}MVords we are apt 
to use thoughtlessly, which are on the verge of swear- 
ing, are apt to lead us over it, and certainly influence 
others, especially the young, in that direction. The 
words "goodness," "gracious," "mercy," are often used 
as by-words. Now goodness, grace, and mercy, while 
attributes of God, are also qualities found in man. 
Neither the one using them nor the one hearing them 
may have the thought of God brought to mind, and so 
we cannot say that their careless use is taking the name 
of God in vain, and we certainly should not burden our 
consciences unnecessarily. Our reverence for God 
should so fill our souls that our lips should have but one 
message, that of reverence, and should instinctively 
avoid the slighting use of any word which might bring 
Him irreverently to mind. 

Our Savior teaches us that we are not to swear at 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 45 

all in our ordinary conversation, either by the name of 
God, or by any person or thing, for all are related to 
Him. He teaches us that our statements should be 
always in accordance with the exact truth, that each 
one of his disciples should have a character of such pure 
truthfulness that his word needed no affirmation. "But 
can I not use by-words at all?" you say. Your speech 
would have more strength and elegance without them, 
would be more acceptable in good society, and what is 
of far greater importance, would be more pleasing to 
God. 

We should also have such reverence and love for our 
God that we could not bear to hear others take his name 
in vain. If any one -should in your presence speak 
slightingly or unkindly or insultingly of your father, 
mother, husband, wife or friend, you would feel hurt 
and your feeling would probably be so deep that you 
would show him in some way, without sharing his im- 
politeness, that you valued highly the one he dishon- 
ored. Our love for God should lead us to cherish his 
honor to the extent of our influence. 

This commandment is distinguished from all the 
others by having a threat connected with it. The former 
command had an appeal. This has a menace. The 
Judge by whose laws and sentences our eternal state is 
to be fixed, from whose sentence there can be no appeal, 
says He will not hold guiltless — a strong way of declaring 
He will pronounce guilty— the one who takes his name 
in vain. The swearer is apt to think his offence a slight 
one. God says He regards it a grievous one. The 
swearer thinks God will not punish the use of a few tri- 
fling words. This is only another instance of the sinner 



46 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

underestimating the enormity of his sin. God declares 
He will punish the guilty. My brother, my sister, if you 
ever swear you should take warning from this solemn 
threatening of God. 

What is the reason that you swear ? Answer this 
question faithfully and you may see some little of the 
greatness of your sin, may confess that God is right in 
His estimate of it. You gain nothing by it, but lose 
much. Swearing is not regarded by men as a mark of 
intellect, or learning, or truthfulness, or refinement, or 
honor, but very generally the reverse. Xor are you 
seeking future good. You are preparing yourself for 
some place and for some companionship in the future. 
But you are not preparing yourself for heaven, for that 
is the place of adoration of God. Swearing, so far as it 
can, is preparing you for hell, the place of blasphemy. 
There must be some strong reason which leads you to 
swear in spite of such loss, present and future. You 
know right well that swearing demoralizes the com- 
munity. It directly opposes religion, which is honoring 
God, for it dishonors him. It directly opposes respect 
for law, faithfulness in office, the administration of jus- 
tice, undermining respect for God and the sanctity of 
an oath. And though it is so demoralizing to the best 
interests of the community, you still swear. There must 
be some strong reason controlling you. There is noth- 
ing noble about it. On the contrary, it is mean and 
cowardly to say behind one's back what we dare not say 
to his face. Would you swear if you were conscious of 
God's presence and holiness, swear to his face ? You 
know also that it is a vulgar practice. A gentleman is 
always considerate of the feelings of others. But you 






THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 47 

despise the feelings of those who honor God when you 
use His name in vain. There must be some strong rea- 
son leading you to this vulgar, cowardly practice. You 
know also that the wickedness of an act depends largely 
upon the character of the person against whom it is 
committed. You contemn God's authority and insult 
his person. The name which all heaven adores, which 
all the universe praises, which all hell fears, you despise. 
Now, my dear friend, faithfully bring forth and examine 
the cause of this wicked act. Is it any other than this, 
" The wickedness of my heart is so great that it flows 
over my lips." God, the Holy One — your Creator, Pre- 
server and Judge— you hold in contempt, and out 
of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh. Jesus 
Christ, the loving Savior, suffered and died for sinners, 
and offers you forgiveness and his gracious help and 
love. You reject him not only— that were bad enough — 
but you despise him so much that your lips tell the feel- 
ing of your heart. We cannot sufficiently estimate the 
extreme wickedness of profanity. Let me solemnly 
charge all profane persons to consider this guilt in God's 
sight according to this commandment, and to repent 
and seek forgiveness in Christ, the forgiveness you so 
greatly need, and without which you must be forever 
lost. 



THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT. 

" Remember the Sabbalh day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou 
labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath" of 
the Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy 
son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant nor thy maidservant, nor th}- 
cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days 
the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and 
rested the seventh day : wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath 
day, and hallowed it."— Ex. 20: 8—11. 

Three things at once arouse our attention. The open- 
ing word, k - Remember," suggests that we are specially 
liable to forget this commandment. The descending 
into particulars intimates the possibility of some trying 
to keep the law themselves, while they allow their work 
in the hands of others to go on. The giving a reason 
for the law, found in this instance alone, foretells a ten- 
dency to set aside this commandment and provides 
against it. Modern times were evidently within the 
vision of the Law-giver on Sinai. 

We can easily see what this commandment, if obeyed, 
would do for our busy lives. It would give us needed 
rest and spiritual uplift. The world is toiling for daily 
bread, on farm and in factory, in shop and store and 
office, day after day, from early morn until the shades 
of night close over the scene. Then comes the dawn 
of the Sabbath. Rest and quiet cover the country and 
the town. Soon the church bells fill the air with their 
solemn tones. Parents and children go together to the 
house of God for praise and meditation and prayer. 
The home is filled with hallowed joy as the hours roll 
48 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 49 

on, and the still evening crowns the day with peace. 
Look ! the outstretched hands of Christ are bestowing 
a benediction on the nations. Listen ! through the 
blessed stillness come his words : " The Sabbath was 
made for man." 

That man in our day and land is in danger of losing 
the Sabbath which God made for him, has already lost 
much of the spiritual uplift and is fast losing much of 
the needed rest of the day, is due entirely to his dis- 
obedience of this commandment. Very important it is 
for him to return to first principles and base his observ- 
ance of the day upon the right foundation, the authority 
of God. Some confusion of mind exists regarding this 
commandment, since there were also enactments in the 
civil and ceremonial laws of the Jews concerning the 
observance of the Sabbath, and from this condition 
also arose many traditional laws which made the day a 
burden. These civil and ceremonial laws have no bind- 
ing power upon us, and the traditional laws never had 
any rightful power upon any one. Our Savior swept 
the traditional away by his word and the others by his 
life and death, only to bring into greater clearness the 
commandment of the moral law by his saying, " The 
Sabbath was made for man." 

This we see in the commandment itself as we reflect 
upon the reason God gives for the law. This shows 
that the commandment is not local and temporary, 
is not ceremonial, but is universal and perpetual ; 
that the holy rest day is God's gift to man. 
It manifests the nature of the Giver. It meets the 
needs of the nature of man and defines his nature. God 
rested—therefore man should rest. The Sabbath is a 



50 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

memorial of creation, and of much more. It is a 
memorial of God's resting from the work of creation, 
and it in that fact shows a principle which is in God's 
nature not only, but also in man's. Whether we regard 
the days of creation as of twenty-four hours each, or 
rather as vast periods of time — the rest day of God as 
extending over the present reign of life upon the earth — 
the reason is the same. God rested and therein blessed 
and hallowed the Sabbath day for man. 

Meditate as we may, we will not be able to exhaust 
the grand truth carried in the bosom of this command- 
ment — God is a Spirit. He manifested his character, 
his wisdom, power and goodness in the work of creation. 
These attributes belong to him before, during, and after 
his work. As He rests from His work the truth is 
made prominent — God the spirit is separate from and 
above His work. So with man. Work is not sinful, 
but noble. The commandment calls him to labor. 
Man's character should manifest itself in his work, his 
truthfulness and goodness. His spiritual nature should 
be noble and enter into his work. He, too, is a spirit, 
separate from and above his work. 

This is a truth man greatly needs to keep in mind. 
We have to work so much for our daily bread, and 
sometimes our work becomes so fascinating and profit- 
able, and sometimes so burdensome and discouraging, 
that it absorbs us. Then God's voice comes to us with 
authority. We are beings capable of hearing and un- 
derstanding His commands. He addresses us as spirits 
separate from and above our work, calls us to lay our 
work aside and hold communion with Him. The 
Hebrew sitting with crossed hands in the door of his 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 51 

tent, looking over the camp at rest and the desert 
beyond, was forced to think of his relation to the Holy 
One who had freed him from Egypt and was leading 
him through the desert to the promised land. In the 
rush of our modern life the need is not less that man 
should at times stop his work lest he come to think that 
the work is part, even the whole of himself. He strains 
every nerve to improve his farm, to pay off the mort- 
gage, to increase his income, to accumulate wealth. 
God calls him to stop and think, " What am I ? 
Where am I going ? What am I to be when this is all 
over?" What mole hills are mortgage, and farm, and 
wealth ! You are a spirit, separate from and above 
your work. Rest awhile and commune with me and 
you will be ennobled for the work that remains for you 
on the earth. This reason for the law takes hold of the 
nature of God and of the nature of man and binds 
them together with the golden clasp of the Sabbath. 

We see also that this commandment not merely 
follows but carries on the requirement of the Third 
Commandment. Man is to reverence God with his 
speech, as a social being, among his fellows. The 
highest reverence to be given in this way must be in 
the public worship of God. In order to this men 
must agree to assemble at certain times, which should 
occur with suitable frequency. Without such an 
arrangement the public worship of God must necessarily 
cease hi any community, and upon the whole earth. 
God meets this need of man and sets apart a suitable 
portion of time both for individual spiritual culture, 
and for the social public worship of Himself. If we ask 
why He should have set apart one seventh rather than 









" - :e: : . : : :.:.'" :::.■:::■:::: :.. :: i? :. ? :^i ::er.: ....— er 
'■ .: - — r _ :::::.:- i:::^:-. ^_.i G . .1 > :L r ".. 7-: .-,:: .1 
rightful judge of what portion is best. Those who 
observe it do not Ml behind in the world's work, rather 
in it. In heathen lands toil is unin- 
terrupted: the rest day prevails among the most 
enlightened, energetic and wealthy nations. 

Our Savior, whom we recognize as Lord of the Sab- 

- - ~~ f :..:-- . z ;/_ t . . : Iz. z hh. :'•: r:e h 1 z-r I 

:- :•-: .e :c^cr-ei fr:zi :'- 1;«: z:,j ;: :ie week 

:he ire: -.....- if '.:_. .: :•: iz'l :he L: :■.'/? Ie 
This he did by rising from the dead on that day, 

_/t.:__- :: Hi= ii?.: : .Tle= ::i "1:.: :.i;r.vf:i.O .wi 
:--::.:^\. lis Ares.le? in :ieir ■.:-,. -e :: :h: 1: :".. ■- When 
:he Aies.lf rVil r_ :e he- ^liih-rhiz"-" :: :he 5-h; :i:L he 
- - :- : v.- Se f.i:h .. " "h: :h :he Jew-V_ :">.: .es 
z'zz :he~ : zh: :: £-\ in ;. .'..h:::_ :•: :_: 1 : : .' i 
Diiv. and to keep it with all the restri etaons 
monial law. The day comes to us therefore on the 
ii:h:ri; ■ :: >:;h hi= ..:: :■: .:- wi:h i_ T ihheh. v;iee 
as a memorial of the victory of our Savior over sin and 
death. 

The observance of the day is to be based therefore 
upon the authority of God in this commandment. To 
:he :er:her :-.ie-:::~. K;— h."-,h " e :h— :v r :he '.at : 
the commandment gives clear general directions, while 
:: ih:~s zre:-: li.errj :: ;.:.e..:::.: *!_■:! :<:_-:ie:::e :n 
: :.::::e. .: 2: ;■".::: .:: :?. 

We are very plainly directed to observe it as a rest 
day. The word - Sabbath *' is simply the Hebrew word 
ziri:.::: " :es: : ?:e::e.I :•: '.:: i.^z"*Zr. We e:e 
: :-z.-zz.-z :ne R— : 1.-; ~' T <~- :.:-:: .1. hi ; er " ;:k 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 53 

in six days. We are not to do any work in the Rest 
Day. Whatever more the day may be grows out of 
the primal element of rest. Natural science stands by 
Revelation in bearing witness to the beneficence of this 
provision. It affirms from the observation of facts that 
man needs one day's rest in seven, that physical deteri- 
oration, and mental as well, and shortening of life, 
result from the disobedience of this law. The employ- 
ers of labor are specially commanded not only to rest 
themselves, but to have those they employ rest also. It 
is quite obvious that this applies not only to individuals 
but also to companies and corporations. It is quite 
obvious also that it not only gives the employed the 
right to rest if they choose, a priceless right, but it 
commands them to exercise it — to rest. 

We all recognize that State laws have neither right 
nor power to force men to be religious — a truth men 
have been slow to learn — but clearly taught by God in 
his word, and in the experience of the race. For other 
reasons it is clearly within the province of State laws to 
command the observance of the Rest Day. For in the 
first place, a wide observation proves that such a day is 
necessary for the welfare of all the people. The God- 
given right of the Rest Day is written in the nature of 
man as well as in the commandments, and the State 
should recognize and secure it. In the next place, a 
large proportion of the citizens of the State, and the 
larger the better for the State, deem it wrong to work 
on the Rest Day. Their right of conscience should be 
protected. In the last place, those devoting the day to 
a religious use should not be hindered therefrom, nor 
disturbed therein. The State should to that extent 



54 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

encourage the religious observance of the day. Rut 
whatever the State laws may enact or fail to enact our 
obligation to God is not affected by them, they cannot 
excuse us from our duty to Him. The State allows 
railroad corporations to force their large companies of 
men to work on the Rest Day, but that does not make 
it right for us to begin or continue our journey on that 
day. and the directors of these railways are not excused 
by the State laws from their responsibility to God. 

But we are not only directed to remember the Rest 
Day, but to remember to keep it holy. God not only 
rested, but he hallowed the day, and commands us to 
keep it holy, a day set apart for his worship. Here also 
is a very clear general direction, while great liberty is 
allowed in particular application. For obseiwe, God 
does not say in the commandment how we shall keep 
the day holy. He leaves that to the judgment and con- 
science of each one. Each one is to have the design to 
keep the day holy, and to make such rules for himself 
as seem best adapted to that end. But he is to be care- 
ful that he does not try to force these rules upon others 
or to judge them thereby. That was the spirit of the 
Pharisee in the traditions which Christ rebuked and set 
aside, and we should guard against cherishing the same 
spirit. 

There are several questions prominent with us which 
should be solved by this principle. What shall I read 
on the Holy Day and commend to my children? That 
which tends to keep the day holy, to lift up your spirit 
and the spirits of your children into fellowship with 
God, and only that. The question of Sunday news- 
papers as it concerns us is not the question of printing 






THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 55 

and distributing the papers, (it is easy to condemn 
others,) but of our reading them. Our sin is not in the 
supply but in the demand, and in the fact that the 
demand is the cause of the supply and regulates it. 
Shall I visit my friends on the Holy Day and invite 
them to visit me ? Will such visiting tend to keep the 
day holy in your family, and in theirs, and in the com- 
munity as your example has influence ? Will it tend to 
lift up your spirit and the spirits of others into fellow- 
ship with God? The observance of the Holy Day in 
private and in the family is the difficult part of the 
duty, but a very important part. Whatever freedom 
there may be from strict rules, however large the appeal 
to the individual conscience, even of young children, if 
the design of the day is kept clearly in view with earn- 
est purpose of attaining it, the spirit of obedience to 
the commandment will fill heart and home with the 
deep and purifying j >y of the Lord's Day. 

We have already seen that the day is set apart and 
hallowed to the social public worship of God. The 
maintaining of such worship by our personal attendance 
upon it is obviously required in the commandment to 
keep the day holy. The public prayer and praise and 
meditation upon the noblest truths will bring our spirits 
into fellowship with God. The Sabbath was made for 
man, and the highest possible benefit we can receive 
from it is to have our spirits brought into a shape 
worthy of God. 

There are many perplexing features of the observ- 
ance of the Lord's Day in our modern civilization which 
God's people who lived before the age of steam and 
iron never dreamed of. Our Savior's teaching that 



56 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

works of necessity and of mercy are not violations of the 
holy rest day should be applied to these perplexities ; 
and should be applied in the spirit he inculcated of 
judging ourselves rather than others. Keeping Tip 
the fires of an ocean steamship and of an iron furnace 
are plain cases of necessity. Perhaps there are other 
cases in your homes which are not so plain, of which 
you must be the judges. The running of a milk train to 
New York and your shipping milk by that train comes 
under the head of works of mercy if you do it to min- 
ister to the well-being of men, women and little chil- 
dren in the crowded city ; but it is a violation of the 
law if done simply to make money. What is your 
intention, a holy or a sordid one ? Judge yourselves 
faithfully, but do not judge your neighbor. 

There is a growing tendency to make the day one of 
mere amusement, and a strong plea is made for those 
who toil through the week on such poor wages that 
their only home is a crowded room or two in a tene- 
ment house, to give them a chance to see the ocean and 
the green fields. Perhaps a more Christian solution of 
the grave problem would be better wages and better 
homes, rather than facilities for pleasures which diminish 
already scant earnings and give but a poor return — - 
obedience to the eighth commandment rather than vio- 
lation of the fourth. The amusement of pleasure 
resorts does not give the rest from labor nor does it 
yield the spiritual uplift which God designs. It is 
generally accompanied by fatigue and in many cases by 
dissipation. . It is safe to say that God is a truer and 
wiser friend of laboring men than are the proprietors 
of railways and pleasure resorts, and his gift of a holy 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 57 

rest day they will find a rich blessing if they use it as 
he directs. But surely if the pleasure-seeking of the 
poor on God's holy day cannot be justified, the pleasure- 
seeking of the rich must be utterly condemned. 

In order that we may have clear views on this com- 
mandment let us not fail to call things by their right 
names. This commandment is more than the setting 
forth of a need of our nature, more than advice for our 
own good. It is a command of God. Breaking the 
Sabbath is therefore more than an error, more than a 
mistake. It is a sin. It is a sin because it contemns 
the authority of God, and that is the essence of all sin. 
God commands us to remember his rest day, to keep it 
holy. If we have no design to keep it holy, or make no 
effort to do so, we set aside the authority of God as of 
no account to us. It is a sin further against the love 
of God shining in this commandment. As a father 
invites his children home to a family gathering because 
he loves to have them in his presence, so God would 
have us, His children, come to Him on the Sabbath 
day because He loves us. If we have no desire to come 
or make no effort to do so we set aside the love of God 
as of no account to us. It is a sin further against our 
.higher nature. God calls us to remember our spiritual 
nature and to guard against degrading ourselves to 
mere sensual beings. He places the Sabbath as a fence 
upon the edge of a precipice. We deliberately break 
down the fence in order that we may throw ourselves 
down into the sensualism of constant work or unhal- 
lowed pleasure. Call Sabbath-breaking by the right 
name — it is a sin. 

We are to keep the rest day holy because God com- 



58 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

mantis it, out of our deep regard for the authority of 
God. Our design is to keep it holy and we are to 
make every earnest effort our judgment and conscience 
commend to the accomplishment of that design. Here, 
as everywhere, in keeping God's commandments there 
is great reward. There is great blessedness that comes 
from keeping the rest day holy to the one keeping it 
so, and to his fellow men. 

Consider the blessings to our fellow men. The holy 
or religious observance of the day bestows the rest day 
upon mankind. The civil rest day is but the shadow 
of God's holy day, a grateful shadow, as of a tree in a 
sultry land. Take the tree away and the shadow 
departs. The cupidity of employers, if unrestrained by 
the law of God, would soon grasp the rest day. The 
license of pleasure, if unrestrained by the law of God, 
would soon yield the rest day to cupidity, is fast doing 
so now. Multitudes have to work on the rest day that 
other multitudes may have pleasure ; and further, such 
unrestrained pleasure-seeking one day in seven would 
become such a nuisance that society in self defense 
would be compelled to abolish the day. The unbeliev- 
ing world may rail against God and His Church, but 
while it does so it is receiving from Him through the 
Church the rich gift of the only rest day it has from 
grinding labor. 

The religious observance of the day also preaches a 
powerful though silent sermon to the non-church-goer, 
telling him he is a man, not a beast of burden ; that there 
is a God whom he should worship ; that there is an 
eternal life beyond this fleeting one for which he should 
prepare. The assembling of God's people for His wor- 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 59 

ship on His Holy Day preaches the Gospel to those who 
never enter the church doors. 

The religious observance of the day does much also 
to educate the conscience of a community. Only two 
kinds of government are possible, the strong arm of a 
king or the moral power of a people governing them- 
selves. The cultivation of this moral power is needed 
for the maintenance of our free institutions. It is safe 
to say that no existing agency can compare in efficiency 
in this direction with the public worship of God, and 
we may well call His Holy Day the bulwark of cur 
liberties. 

The religious observance of the day further secures 
the continuance and progress of Christianity in the' 
world. The day is a memorial of creation and redemp- 
tion. Its memories, its hallowed associations, its influ- 
ences, its teachings, its worship, all speak eloquently of 
God, his love for us and our relation to him, and 
strongly bind our sinful world to His Holy Throne. It 
is difficult to conceive how Christianity would remain 
after His Holy Day had departed. The procession of 
secular days bears rich material gifts to man. The 
Holy Day spreads heaven's glories over the earth. 

The religious observance of the day brings also rich 
blessing to the one so observing it. However crushing 
may be the burden of toil and care we carry during all 
the week, when the Holy Day dawns God himself takes 
it from our spirits that we may have free and full com- 
munion with him. In such communion our spirits are 
refreshed and strengthened. As the river Nile flows 
over Egypt at certain times bringing therein the bless- 
ing of fruitful seasons, so this river from the Throne of 



60 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

God flows regularly over our parched lives, bringing 
therein to our souls fruitfulness in heavenly graces. 
Our week is like the school-boy's writing page. On 
the first day our Savior sets before us his holy example. 
We try to copy it in our busy lives, but how imperfect 
is our work ! Too often the page is straggling and 
blotted. We have cause to weep bitter tears of disap- 
pointment and sorrow. Then comes the Lord's Day, 
and our Savior gently cheering us to new courage turns 
over the leaf and gives us again his clear example. 
One day for teaching, six days for practice, and our 
patient loving teacher always with us helping and 
inspiring. Surely as the weeks roll on we should con- 
stantly improve until at length when the book of life is 
finished He may say to each one of us: " Well done." 
The Holy Day also gives us a clear view of our 
heavenly home, the eternal holy rest from all this world's 
t:>il and care. A nobleman in England showing a friend 
through his palace, when they reached the highest win- 
dow in the tower, said : " From this window on a Sun- 
day we can see the cathedral spires of Durham.'' " Why 
on Sunday? " the friend asked. "Because on that day 
the factories do not pour forth their smoke, and through 
the clear air the spires are seen." So the fumes and 
smoke of earth often cloud our vision of heaven. Then 
comes the Holy Day witli its rest from worldly toil and 
its heavenly breeze, and as the smoke clears away we 
see the far off spires of our eternal home. How the 
sight thrills our hearts with bright hopes and firm 
courage for the remaining journey till we shall reach 
the Rest at last ! 



THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 

" Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long 
upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." — Ex. 20 : 12. 

A human law-giver, in enacting an important code, 
might consider it beneath his dignity to take notice of 
children, but God manifests his divine wisdom and love 
in directly addressing them in this commandment. We 
recognize at once that the early training of children is 
considered by God of the greatest importance to their 
own welfare, to the welfare of the race, and to the honor 
of Himself. We see also that the command is expressed 
in such a way that the duty remains long after the child- 
hood stage of our existence is passed, as long as the 
parental relation exists ; even longer, for some of us can 
only honor father and mother now in our memory. We 
may well notice also that however low an estimate may 
have been placed upon woman in the far east and in 
that ancient day, or may be placed upon her now any- 
where, God commands that the mother shall be held in 
equal honor with the father. He who learns truly to 
honor his mother at home learns to honor womanhood 
everywhere. 

The position of this commandment among the others 
has important teachings. It is the center, the heart of 
the whole law. Our Savior gives us this summary of 
the law : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. 
This is the first and great commandment. And the 

61 



62 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS, 

second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself." Not only has God given us the power to love, 
but he has placed us in relationships which call this 
power into exercise and give it right direction, espec- 
ially the relationship of parents and children. The 
deep, strong, pure parental love — Others may hear 
about it, may have the power to love, but cannot expe- 
rience it. Only parents feel it, and only a child, their 
child, can awaken it into powerful life. Xot only do 
they love their child, they soon find a yearning for the 
child's love. They rejoice in the first signs of intelli- 
gence. How unspeakably precious are the first signs 
of recognition and responsive love — the brightening 
of the eye as father enters the room, the crowing laugh 
as mother takes the child in her arms ! Growing from 
this is the parent's desire for the child's obedience, an 
obedience not of fear but of love. How much the parents 
will saciifice, not regarding it as sacrifice, to secure the 
child from evil ! How great is their love and their 
yearning for the child's love ! These are beyond esti- 
mate. This continues not for a few days or months 
only, but for years, even for life ; for although man is 
the most finely organized of the animal creation his off- 
spring is the most helpless, requiring the most tender 
and constant care for years, and his love for his children 
never dies. God surely in this relationship cultivates 
love. In the child's heart also a deep true love for the 
parents is implanted by the Creator, to grow and 
strengthen as the years roll on. The commandments 
we have seen reveal both the nature of God and the 
nature of man, and this commandment in the center of 
the law enters the relationship God has established 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 63 

among men and gives the natural affection He there 
cultivates its noblest possible exercise and meaning. 
God says in it to parents, " As you love your children, 
so I love you. As you yearn for their responsive love, 
so I yearn for yours. I am your Father." God says 
in it to children, " Love }^our parents, and therein learn 
to love me, your Father." The supreme love for God 
required in the first and great commandment is to 
find in this relationship its cultivation. So also the love 
for our neighbor required in the second command of our 
Savior is like the love of children for each other. God, 
my Father ; man, my brother. 

The position 01 this commandment among the others 
has a further teaching of great importance. The place 
of division into the two Tables of the Law is somewhat 
indistinct. It is in this commandment : bat whether it 
belongs to the First Table, or to the Second, is not quite 
clear. It certainly treats of duties to man, and so must 
belong to the Second Table. But hold ! May not the 
parents be regarded as the representatives of God ? 
Then it belongs to the First Table. There is certainly 
a strong analogy in the relationships. The parents are 
the nearest cause to the child of its being, its continued 
existence and its welfare, and this through that wonder- 
ful thing God has given them, parental love, which 
allies them so closely to Himself. We need not try to 
determine what God seems to have purposely left indis- 
tinct. In the indistinctness is the lesson. We are apt 
to consider duties to man separately, but God joins them 
indissolubly with duties to Himself. The two tables 
are not parts of the same law, separate and distinct from 
each other, but parts God has so joined together that no 



64 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

man can tell where the one ends and the other begins. 
The morality required in this law must have religion in 
it. and the religion required is indissolubly joined with 
morality. 

The position of the commandment in this indistinct- 
ness also shows its great importance. Consider. ng it as 
the last of the First Table, we see that in order that 
children shall become men and women worshiping God 
in spirit and in truth, they are to be taught and trained 
by honoring their parents. Considering it as the first 
of the Second Table, we see that in order that children 
shall become men and women fulfilling their duties in 
the various relations of life, they are to be taught and 
trained by honoring their parents. Both religion and 
morality have their foundations laid in the home life of 
children. 

The charge of cruelty to and neglect of children, may- 
be brought against the religion and morality of pagan 
Home. Christianity has taught the world tlie interest 
God has in children. She can never forget that her Lord 
was once a babe, that lie commended to his disciples the 
childlike spirit, and that He took little children in His 
arms and blessed them, welcoming them into the king- 
dom of heaven. In this Christian land and age great 
attention is being paid to children, in our homes and in 
our schools. Great advance has been made in this 
direction within less than a century, and is still being 
made. We are beginning to follow the divine wisdom 
and love of the Supreme Law-giver who in joining the 
two Tables of His Law speaks especially to the chil- 
dren. 

In this interest of God in them there is a strong 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 6$ 

appeal to children. As soon as this commandment comes 
to their attention they should respond to this love of 
God for them and at once strive to keep His law. Here 
as in the first commandment no outward act is com- 
manded, but our inward spirit or disposition, from which ■ 
will flow acts of its own character. We are not to allow 
the natural affection in our hearts for our parents to 
become cooled or displaced, but we are to cultivate it 
in obedience to God. We are also to have in our love 
for our parents a large element of reverence due to them 
to whom we owe so much and whom God has placed in 
authority over us. 

There are some plain duties embraced in this com- 
mandment which we, children of all ages, may profitably 
consider. We are to honor our parents in our thoughts. 
Bo3^s and girls, when they begin to go to school and to 
find associates beyond the home circle and to catch 
their first view of the great world, are quite apt to 
indulge the conclusion that they know more and have 
rather better judgment than their fathers and mothers. 
It is because you know so little that you think you 
know so much. When }^ou have passed through this 
stage of your being, when you have lived a little longer 
and learned a little more, you will conclude that your 
parents' views of your studies and the conduct proper 
for you were much better than your own. To adopt 
their views now, cheerfully and firmly, will be more 
modest and wise and certainly more in harmony with 
this commandment. 

We are to honor our parents in our speech. When we 
speak to them we are to cultivate the respectful tone of 
voice and use such words as shall give them honor. 
5 



66 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

The sullen tone and the cross word are absolutely for- 
bidden. When we speak of them, in their presence or 
in their absence, we are to use terms of honor and love. 
It is certainly far from right for a young man to speak 
of his father as " the old man," or " the governor." 
The bad taste is, here as generally, bad morals. We are 
to honor our parents in our conduct. A young man 
will tip his hat to a young lady, and to an aged 
honorable man, and on the street and in company will 
be very attentive to their wants. Excellent conduct, 
provided the young man gives at least equal attention 
and honor to his father and his mother. 

Of course children are to obey their parents. Dis- 
obedience breaks the command of God at the same time 
it breaks the command of the parents. Obedience 
should flow from the honor in which the parents are 
held. It should be prompt, cheerful and loving; not 
full of excuses, not coaxing off, not delaying until a 
stern command is required, not seeing how little honor 
it can give — which is giving no honor at all — but loyally 
consulting the slightest wish of the parents and promptly 
and lovingly fulfilling it. Obedience should also be 
faithful, just as complete in the absence of the parents 
as in their presence. The boy has taken a dangerous 
position who will do in his father's absence what he 
knows his father would not approve, and the girl is not 
safe who has anything to hide from her mother. We 
are to honor our parents also in working for them, and 
in need supporting them. Not only is this the prompt- 
ing of natural affection, not only is it our honor and 
privilege often to care for those who have so greatly 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 6? 

cared for us, but it is a part of the duty we owe to God 
in obedience to His commandment. 

Much of this, some may say, implies that our parents 
are perfect. It is easier to fulfill these duties when the 
parents are worthy, still when we cannot help seeing 
great defects in them the duties remain. The honor we 
should give them will lead us to bear with their infirmi- 
ties, and to conceal their defects as far as possible from 
others, while we place a high estimate upon their vir- 
tues. There is one case which may possibly arise— the 
parent commands what God forbids. We are then to 
obey God. He is above all. All the authority the parent 
possesses is from God, and therefore can never be 
used against Him. 

We may now consider a few reasons why we should 
honor our parents. The first and greatest is because 
God commands. His command is written in our own 
natures and in this holy law. This reason is above all 
others and embraces all. 

Such conduct gives the greatest pleasure to our 
parents, as the reverse conduct brings to their hearts 
the keenest suffering. We can never fully appreciate 
all the care and love father and mother have bestowed 
upon us in infancy and youth, in sickness and in health, 
and the yearning of their hearts for our love. Surely 
we should respond to their love — we should seek their 
happiness. 

Such conduct is itself excellent. There is something 
within us that approves it, and condemns the reverse. 
When we see children honoring their parents we can 
not help feeling, " that is good." When we see them 
disobedient and disrespectful we can not help feeling, 



6S THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

k ' that is wrong." Many noble examples appeal to this 
feeling and incite ns to a like excellency. When you, 
boys and girls, go to High School and College you will 
read Latin and Greek. The greatest poet in each of 
these languages, each in his greatest poem, gives a 
glowing account of a man who was a hero. One of the 
noblest things written of this hero is this : He was one 
of the warriors of Troy, and when the Greeks captured 
and destroyed that city he made his escape from the 
ruins. He fled through the burning streets bearing a 
heavy burden upon his bended back which greatly 
hindered his flight, but he never offered to lay it down, 
it was so valuable to him. It was not money or jewels 
or any valuable property. He would not have en- 
dangered his life for that. The heavy load he carried 
was his aged and infirm father, and he bore him safely 
through. His name is and ever will be held -in highest 
honor, and the noblest thing that can be said of him is 
this : " iEneas saved his father from burning Troy." 
You remember a decisive point in the life of Washing- 
ton. He wanted to be a sailor, and his mother gave a 
reluctant consent. All things were ready. The ship 
lay off in the river. His trunk was in the little boat 
which waited to take him to the ship, and he went to 
bid good-bye to his mother. He found her in tears. 
He at once ordered his trunk to be returned to the 
house and sent word to the ship that he would not go. 
" I will not break my mother's heart to gratify myself," 
he said, and his mother replied : " George, God has 
promised to bless those who honor their parents. He 
will bless } T ou." We all remember that one of the 
recent presidents of the United States, when he had 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 69 

taken the oath of office in the presence of the assembled 
multitude, in that proud and solemn moment, 
the supreme moment of his life, turned from 
the people and kissed his aged mother. But 
why mention lesser examples? The greatest of all 
beings, the glorious Son of God, our Savior, when he 
was on earth, honored his parents. It is said " he was 
subject to them." For many years he labored for them, 
and when he endured the shame and agony of the cross he 
honored his mother and made provision for her welfare. 
When you find it difficult to obey your parents it will 
help you to remember that our Lord Jesus Christ 
obeyed his. When you find it hard to labor for and sup- 
port them it will nerve you with new courage to think 
that He even on the cross provided for His mother. 
Copy the great example here as always, and honor your 
father and mother. 

The commandment itself contains a reason for 
obedience in that it gives a promise, an assurance 
that in the providence of God obedience to this com- 
mandment will result in long life and prosperity. This 
sets forth a general rule in the divine government of the 
race, promoting stability in social welfare. The child 
honoring his parents learns self control, obedience to 
law, submission hearty and prompt to rightly consti- 
tuted authority as a principle of action. Such a child 
will in all probability become a man of like character. 
He will obey the laws of health. Entering business 
he will obey the laws of success, industry, perseverance, 
economy, enterprise. His powers under full control, 
he will be also a law-abiding citizen in society. Such 
character tends to long life and the enjo} r ment of the 



;o THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

gifts of God. A good citizen enjoys the protection of 
the State not only, bnt helps to form a condition of 
social well-beino'. The child on the other hand who is 
disobedient and disrespectful to his parents, who sets 
aside their authority and God's authority, is cultivating 
a law-breaking character. He will in all probability 
become a self-willed man, setting at defiance the laws of 
God and man. Such a life tends to the undermining of 
health by excesses, to the waste of property by abuse, to 
the running into dangers recklessly, and to the over- 
throw of social well-being. Such a character fends to 
shorten life and to forfeit the gifts of God. A bad 
citizen throws away the protection of the State and is 
an element threatening the stability of social welfare. 
Honoring parents tends to long life and prosperity in 
the individual, and as this becomes general, it tends to the 
long life and prosperity of the nation. There is a wide 
and rich blessing visibly bestowed in this life on 
obedience to this commandment. 

Of course parents have correspondingly great duties 
resting upon them, since God places them in such an 
honorable position and clothes them with such great 
authority. They are to remember whence the authority 
comes and why it is given to them. They are to use it 
in the fear of God and for the welfare of their children 
and of the community. They should neither lay it aside 
nor abuse it. They are to govern their children if they 
would have their children learn to govern themselves. 
They should also endeavor to be worthy of the honor 
God commands their children to give them. The in- 
fluence of their teaching and example upon their children 
will of necessity be great. It is within their power that it 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. yi 

should also be good. If they are worthy of the honor 
their children give them, if they rightly estimate and 
are faithful to the great trust God places in them, their 
children honoring them and together with them will 
give God the worship which is His due and will faith- 
fully discharge their duties to men as they arise in the 
varied relations of life. Blessed indeed are those homes 
where family worship is established and cherished. 
Their practice has caught the spirit of this command- 
ment. Parents and children may well meditate 
together upon the word of God, their rule of living ; 
may well praise Him for the blessed relationship He has 
established, for that sweetest, dearest place on earth, a 
Christian home ; and may well seek from Him the 
guidance and grace they need in their duties that the 
home may be the center and source of pure religion and 
true morality. 

It is quite evident that this commandment covers all 
those relationships which naturally grow out of the 
relationship of parents and children. Children are to 
honor their teachers who stand in the place of their 
parents to them for certain well defined purposes. The 
young are to honor the aged. The advancing genera- 
tion is to honor the departing one, inheriting its 
achievements, with due appreciation of its worth. The 
family naturally widens into the tribe and the nation. 
In the on-flowing stream of human life governments 
arise and become established. God is the author, in the 
social nature of man and in the course of his provi- 
dence, of order, not of confusion ; of government, not 
of anarchy. " The powers that be are ordained of 
God." Men are born into national inheritances. Few 



~2 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

generations are called upon to create a government : it 
is generally a growth according to the condition and 
needs of society, a slow growth extending through 
ages, changes being wrought gradually by the develop- 
ing of principles and forces beyond the plan or life of 
any single man or generation of men. The form of 
government and its character will be the outgrowth of 
the intellectual and moral development of the people. 
Christianity does not propose to make the people better 
by revolutionizing the government, but to make the 
government better by revolutionizing the people. With 
this design she entered the Koman Empire. It was far 
from being a perfect government, but it was the expres- 
sion of the moral condition of the existing social life. 
It was far better than anarchy, and it was her noble 
and fruitful mission to maintain order in society while 
she lifted society to a higher moral plane, which would 
gradually secure a better order of government. 

Our noble form of self government is our rich inher- 
itance from the generations past who have lived in this 
land and in the father-lands, as Christianity has fos- 
tered the love of liberty and the power of self control 
and the principles of righteousness in their social life. 
Whatever of fruitful struggle there has been, has been 
for a better government within the reach of the better 
social condition. To confess that our government to- 
day is not perfect is simply to confess that the moral 
condition of society is not perfect. Christianity does 
not therefore call up the red flames of anarchy and bid 
them hasten to destroy, but she sets up her school 
houses and her churches and conserves the present 
order while she prepares for all needed advance. 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 73 

We may regard government therefore as a human 
institution, but of divine appointment. Since the 
authority of government is from God, rulers should 
have a high sense of the dignity of their position as His 
representatives, and should rule in His fear for the wel- 
fare of the people. " Public office is a public trust," is 
not a new truth or even a whole truth. Though prom- 
inent now, it is part of a higher truth. Public office 
is a divine trust. Rulers should excel in the likeness 
of Him they represent in true righteousness and in 
unselfish devotion to the highest interest of man. 

Hence also citizens should give their rulers the honor 
due their high office, and due obedience to the laws of 
the land. This is a religious duty. The authority of 
God gives stability to the nation. None but a law- 
abiding people can be free. 

Hence also it is evident that since the authority of 
the State comes from God it can never be used against 
Him, can never make it our duty to disobey God. True 
freedom is obedience to God. Honoring rulers and 
submission to human laws are enjoined in this command- 
ment. These duties and their limitation by our obliga- 
tion to God are the foundation of social stability and 
of all civil and religious liberty. 

Citizens in this self-governing nation should give 
great attention to the affairs of government, from the 
smallest town office up through the several grades to 
the highest office in the land. We should elect only 
such rulers as we will be able to honor, and who will 
enact only righteous laws. It is certainly very difficult 
often to respect all the officers of city, state and 
nation. It is our own fault that it is so. We should 



74 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

be more careful to elect men worthy of respect. But, 
whoever is elected, we should give him the respect due 
the office. It is our right and duty to freely and fully 
investigate the private character and record of a candi- 
date for office. But the truth should alone be sought. 
To slander one is base always, specially base when done 
for political effect. When the election is over the duty 
of investigating gives place to the duty of honoring 
the elected ruler, and this rests upon those who have 
opposed his election as well as upon those who have 
favored it. He is no longer a private citizen but ele- 
vated to office. The honor due the office belongs to 
him. 

Children, honor your parents — citizens, honor your 
rulers — all men, honor God. 



THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 

"Thou shalt not ki!l.' ? — Ex. 20:13. 

The most mysterious and valuable of all God's crea- 
tions is life. Man cannot imitate even its lowest forms. 
He may paint the rose, showing its form and color, but 
cannot imitate its life. God seems to have carefully 
guarded this creation so that it may always be recog- 
nized that He is its direct source, the Life-giver. Scien- 
tific research and discussion seem to have reached the 
firm conclusion that life never springs of itself from 
dead matter, that it only comes into being from the 
touch of pre-existing life. It is also one of God's most 
bountiful creations. The earth teems with myriad 
forms, rising grade upon grade until the highest life on 
earth, that of man, is reached. These myriad forms are 
closely related, the great variety being produced by 
slight deviations from a few general plans. Through 
this whole realm of life we see the working of a strange 
law. Life is sustained by death. In its ceaseless round 
it largely lives upon itself. Vegetable lives upon vege- 
table. The trees of the forest enrich the soil they grow 
in by falling leaves and decaying branches. Vegetables 
give food to animals, the cattle browse upon the grass 
of the meadows and man lives upon the wheat of the 
field, animals feed upon animals, fishes upon fishes, 
birds upon insects, while the lion roams the forest for 
its pre}^. All vegetable and animal life alike minister 
to the higher life of man. If this commandment applied 

75 



76 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

to all killing, man would soon starve, for his life is 
sustained by the death of vegetable and animal. 

But we are not therefore to conclude that man has an 
unlimited right to destroy the lower grades of life. God 
has written in the constitution of man and in his 
revealed word that man may kill the lower animals 
when necessary to defend or sustain his higher life. 
Beyond these exceptions which God himself makes He 
guards in this commandment his great creation, life, 
from the hand of man. The prohibition is expressed in 
the most absolute and general way possible, and should 
be so considered. God commands us to have a high 
regard for life, even in its lower forms. Hunting, while 
it develops manhood, strength, quickness, courage, 
cannot be justified by the mere pleasure of the hunt, 
only by seeking food. So with fishing. We have no. 
right to take the life of bird or fish merely for our own 
sport. We should give our domestic animals kind 
treatment, sufficient food and but moderate labor. We 
are to take good care of the life God entrusts to us, and 
are not to abuse or waste it. All cruelty to animals is 
forbidden. Children should not be permitted to torment 
pet animals, certainly not to torture and kill flies. What 
right have we to take away the life even of a worm ? or 
to cause it the slightest suffering? Man's abuse of his 
power over lower forms of life in this earth is cruel. 
Let us recognize that all cruelty is in violation of this 
commandment, and call it sin. 

While the commandment in its absoluteness includes 
all life, it evidentl}^ specially applies to human life. 
Man is not only the highest of the animals, allied with 
them in his creation from "the dust of the ground," 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 77 

but he is distinct from them in that he was created in 
the image of God, so possessing a spiritual nature, and 
as such God places him in dominion over the earth. 
We are to hold all life in high regard, and hence this 
human life, higher than all other with which it is related, 
and differing from all other in possessing the likeness 
of God, and also clothed with His delegated authority 
over the earth, is to be held by us as sacred. 

Our Savior in his exposition of this commandment 
teaches us that it forbids not only the act of killing, 
but as well all those feelings which, have a tendency to 
lead to that act. He also teaches us in his summary of 
the Second Table of the law, "Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself," that this commandment directs us 
to cherish the lives both of our neighbors and of our- 
selves. It is certainly an intimation of the deep de- 
pravity into which man has fallen that God finds it 
necessary to command us not to kill ourselves or our 
fellow men. The prohibitory form here as elsewhere 
indicates tendencies that need restraint. 

The commandment is addressed to each man and 
applies to his own life and to the life of his neighbor. 

To his own life. He is forbidden to take it. He is 
commanded to care for it. Man does not own himself, 
lias no title in his own life as before God, lias no right 
to destroy it, but should take good care of it, for it 
belongs to God. However great troubles may come 
upon us we are to bear them, not fly from them ; how- 
ever great the consequences of our mistakes and sins 
we are to endure them, not rebel against them. Man 
is never to come before God, the Judge of his life, un- 
called of him and with the guilt of his own blood on his 



-S THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

soul. We are in this commandment forbidden to brood 
over our troubles. It is wrong to cultivate a melan- 
choly spirit, or a rebellious one. We should strive 
against these natural tendencies which threaten life and 
dishonor God. 

God requires us further to have that high regard for 
our lives which shall lead us to guard and maintain 
them in the best possible condition. We are to become 
familiar with the laws of health and obedient to them. 
All practices shortening life are forbidden, and practices 
tending to good health and long life are commanded. 
This commandment enters our homes with the pure air 
of heaven, with plenty of sunlight, and with all health- 
ful surroundings. The law of God sits down with us 
at our tables. Appetites are means to an end, not ends 
in themselves. They are to sustain the system, not to 
seek simply their own gratification. When a food 
is unwholesome it is to be refused, no matter how the 
appetite craves it ; nor must appetite ever lead us 
to eat too much of wholesome food; and the law of God 
should govern our drinking as well as our eating. It 
applies also to the manners of the table, to eating fast 
or slow, in sullen mood or cheerful. 

The commandment tells us how we shall dress. 
Clothing has two purposes, adornment and comfort. 
These need never conflict. Certainly, adornment should 
be subordinate to comfort. Fashion often says: "Thin 
slippers and a small waist." The law of God says: 
" Follow nature and care for good health." Students 
of the subject say that in an average well dressed audi- 
ence not one lady in ten can take a full breath. The 
lungs, the heart and other vital organs are compressed 



. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 79 

in unhealthy ways by tight dressing, often leading to 
debility and suffering in themselves and in their chil- 
dren. It is to be presumed that our ladies who excel 
in piety have not seriously considered the subject of 
their dress as being covered by this commandment. 
Thin shoes and bare arms venture out to a late party 
on a winter's night, a severe cold sometimes follows 
and a speedy death. We say, What a mysterious prov- 
idence to take one so young! Do we not know that the 
laws of providence are in favor of good health and long 
life, and that sickness and death often come directly 
from our disobedience of these laws. 

This commandment directs us in the conduct of our 
business. In gaining our living we are not needlessly 
to risk our lives. We are to be masters of our business, 
not mastered by it. There is a reckless pursuit of busi- 
ness as well as of pleasure. Both are forbidden. Many 
a business man breaks down under the strain he had no 
right to assume. The feverish excitement and danger- 
ous rush of our American life may build up fortunes 
and advance the general material prosperity, but do not 
have the highest regard for human life. " Better wear 
out than rust out," is probably true, but neither is good. 
God commands us to cherish our lives. 

The question of health and life is not one of mere 
expediency and choice but of duty. We are not to make 
light of this life, but to value it properly. We are not 
to take care of it for mere enjoyment, but for the 
earnest service of God to whom it belongs, and of our 
fellow men who also belong to God. We are to keep 
the life inigpodicondition by use and for use. The time 
may come when the life God calls us to guard so care- 



80 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

fully ho will call us to give as freely, to lay it down 
upon the altar of our country, or in the care of other 
lives committed to our charge, or as His witnesses at 
the martyr's stake. Such calls make heroes. The three 
hundred who defended Greece were heroes. He was a 
hero as well who a few days ago on Long Island Sound 
stood in the pilot house, with the flames around him 
blistering his hands and face and endangering his life, 
and firmly guided the vessel till it struck the shore. 
Such calls may never come to us. But the call of duty 
is now upon us to take the best care of the life God has 
given us and use it in His service. 

God requires further in this commandment that each 
one shall hold the life of others sacred as well as his 
own. He is forbidden to take it. He is commanded to 
care for it. In our law-abiding land where the State 
enforces this commandment, the need of self-defense 
seldom arises, though the right clearlj* remains. In en- 
forcing this commandment the State inflicts the death- 
penalty for murder not because she has any inherent 
light over the lives of her citizens, but since God has 
made this her duty in the law given to Noah, which con- 
firms the instinct of justice in our natures. The growing 
sentiment in Christian lands that nations should live 
together peacefully, that they have no more right to 
fight and kill than individuals have, and consequently 
that war generally is a stupendous crime, is in clear 
harmony with this commandment. The right to defend 
the national existence clearly exists, as does the right of 
individual self-defense, but international law in our 
Christian civilization should prevent all call for the exer- 
cise of this right. 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 8 1 

We are to have such high regard for human life, our 
own and our neighbors', as belonging to God that we will 
neither neglect, injure nor destroy it, nor harbor any feel- 
ings leading that way, but will guard and cherish it and 
will cultivate those views and feelings which recognize 
its sacredness. All malice and hatred are clearlv for- 
bidden. We are to guard our hearts against their 
entrance. If they are already there they must be 
expelled at once, they must not be harbored or in any 
way gratified. Not only by blow or weapon is it pos- 
sible to mar or shorten life. Hateful treatment and 
malicious words may give sensitive spirits deep and 
deadly wounds. While we arenot to cherish malicious 
feelings in any degree, we are to carefully guard against 
awakening such feelings in others. The contentious 
spirit is to be checked in its small beginnings, for its 
natural tendency is to hard feelings and deadly hatred. 
Our pride is not to be cultivated, for an over-estimate of 
our own importance is sure to be cut to the quick by 
the slights of others, and arousing into anger will cherish 
the desire for revenge. High temper quickly flies into 
anger when provoked and often acts and speaks in the 
heat of passion, adding fuel to its own flame and 
striking fire into other hearts. It is said that Julius 
Caesar won many victories over his own spirit by the 
simple rule never to speak or act when provoked until 
he had repeated slowly the Roman alphabet. As we 
have that alphabet in use now-a-days we can all be like 
great Csesar in that respect, and the more fiery our tem- 
per the greater our need to follow his example. It is 
a question which is worse, " Quick to anger and quick 
6 



82 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

to cool," or " Slow to anger and slow to cool." Cher- 
ished enmity and quick hatred are alike forbidden. 

Not all anger is wrong. When a sense of justice 
exists with any strength anger will be aroused by the 
sight of wrong. Our Lord Jesus Christ was angry with 
the Pharisees who murmured against his cures on the 
Sabbath day, and was filled with moral indignation 
when he drove the money-changers from the Temple. 
Bat our anger must be of a judicial nature to be justi- 
fied. Selfishness, which blinds a judge, should not enter 
into it, and it should never be immoderate in degree or 
continuance, taking on the hue of hatred. Neither is 
it possible that we should be insulted and not feel it. 
Christian manhood may feel the insult and keenly make 
known its feeling without flaming into resentment. So 
our Savior felt the insult when smitten on the face and 
made known his feelings in the keen rebuke, "If I have 
spoken evil bear witness of the evil ; but if well why 
smitest thou me?" 

We are to beware of having any prejudice against 
our neighbor. We are to think of him kindly and 
speak of him and to him kindly, no matter what he 
thinks of us, or how he speaks of us or to us, cr even if 
he will not speak to us at all. We are to cherish no 
enmity in our hearts though he may have enmity in his, 
but are to cultivate a loving and forgiving spiiit, and 
to seek in wise and loving ways to win his respect and 
good will. All private grudges and neighborhood feuds 
•if they stand at all must stand under the frowning face 
of this commandment. Neither can cool indifference 
to our neighbors' welfare find any place in our hearts 
under this law of God. The rich, the learned and the 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 83 

socially distinguished, while they must have special 
enjoyment with their own class, are never to forget that 
man is man wherever found, that human life is sacred, 
however unadorned it may be, and that they are to cher- 
ish the lives of their neighbors as their own, seeking 
their highest well-being, since all alike belong to God. 

In the social arrangements of the day lives are often 
placed in the charge of others. Those having this 
charge should pay special attention to this commands 
ment. Those who have the management of the great 
forces of civilization, steam power and electricity, are 
responsible to God for the use of the power with which 
He has clothed them. Lives are under their care in 
crowded factory, stately vessel or rushing train. If in 
caring for and serving these lives they can earn a fair 
money reward, who can question their right to enjoy it ? 
But if, seeking simply money, they are carelessly indif- 
ferent to their charge, and lives are lost, the largest 
dividends will be powerless to cleanse their souls from 
the guilt of blood. The owner of a tenement house, if 
he regards this commandment at all, will seek the 
health, comfort and welfare of his tenants. Builders 
of roads, bridges and houses, if they regard this com- 
mandment at all, will seek not only good wages but 
mainly to do good work, that men's lives may be safe. 
Employers of labor, if they regard this commandment 
at all, will not mar and shorten the lives under their 
care by excessive work and insufficient wages. They 
will remember that they are employing men, and they 
are to cherish the lives of all men, especially of those 
under their care. 

Our personal responsibility to God is not lost in our 



84 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

being members of a community. This commandment 
directs us to be good citizens and to seek the health 
and welfare of all the members of the community where 
we dwell. The sanitary arrangements of city, towu 
and village are commended to our attention. We may 
not neglect them without guilt. One is not to be so 
absorbed in his own comforts and the guards he has 
placed about his own life, and his family's, that he 
neglects the general health and welfare. The com- 
mandment enjoins upon us that public spirit which 
seeks the best drainage, the purest water supply, and all 
those arrangements which tend to make the community- 
life both pleasant and safe. The sanitary condition of 
a country home is also to be considered by the owner, 
not only for its inmates but for its neighbors also. 

We have lived together in this community for now 
nearly a dozen years, and you and I can think on the 
instant of several men who have beyond question died 
from the effects of intoxicating drinks during that time. 
It was their own fault, you say. True, but not the 
whole truth. The liquor seller is to blame, you say. 
He ought not to have sold to drunkards, or to those 
intoxicated. True. I have not one w^ord to say in his 
excuse; but again, not the whole truth. These men 
who died, when they were boys saw respectable men go 
into bar-rooms and drink. When they became young 
men they began to drink, treated often by these respect- 
able men, and treating one another ; and so they con- 
tinued drinking. The sale of liquor was open, almost 
free, and patronized by men they respected. Evidently 
tbe system in which they lived had something to do 
with their deaths. Now the laws of the State in which 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 85 

we live give us in this community full power to stop 
this system, if we so choose, and will take the trouble 
to do it. It exists to-day, and has existed all these 
years because we do not choose and will not take the 
trouble to stop it. And these ten or a dozen men who 
have died are to blame for their deaths. Yes. The liquor 
seller is also to blame. Yes — and something more. We 
are to blame/ Our garments are not free from their 
blood. That which has been will be. Within the next 
few years a few more men will come to untimely deaths,, 
Some who are near and dear to us and who would in a 
different social system live noble and useful lives. You 
and I know it will be so, and that it will be so because 
we do.not choose and will not take the trouble to stop 
the almost free and somewhat respectable and attract- 
ive sale of liquor on our streets. Our indifference to 
the matter is in direct violation of this commandment. 
We ought to face our responsibility now rather than 
put it off into eternity, for face it some time we must. 

The sacredness of life enjoined in the commandment 
covers not merely the bodily life, it lies specially in our 
spiritual life, in the image of God. Is life worth living? 
asks the worldly philosopher, as if there was some doubt 
about it. Worth living ? Surely it is, since our spiritual 
life though fallen may be brought into a shape worthy 
of God, our Father. Herein we see the highest realm 
of this commandment, the true sacredness of life. We 
are carefully to avoid in ourselves and in our influence 
all those things which would have any tendency to 
destroy the soul. We are to diligently cultivate in our- 
selves and in our influence all those things which have 
any tendency to ennoble the soul. The value of the 



$6 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

soul, the sacred ness of life, who can estimate it aright ! 
"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 
He died upon the cross giving u His life a ransom for 
many." The mission of our Lord Jesus Christ, His life 
and death, show the estimate God places upon our lives, 
the love of God for us. The more clear and controlling 
our faith in the Savior, the more fully we live a Chris- 
tian life and put forth a Christian influence over our 
fellowmen, the more in harmony we will be with the 
requirement of this commandment. Praise God, that he 
created us in his image ! Praise God, for the glorious 
salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ I 



THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 

Thou shalt not commit adultery. 1 ' — Ex. 20 : 14. 

Morality is an essential part of religion. God can- 
not be truly honored without it. Neither can there be 
true morality without honoring God. This character- 
istic of the law elevates duty to man to the highest pos- 
sible plane, makes it a part of duty to God — hence there 
is a sacredness in it. We found in the sixth command- 
ment a sacredness of human life. We are forbidden to 
destroy it. We are commanded to cherish it. In the 
seventh commandment we see the sacredness of mar- 
riage. Now marriage is the crown of the relationship 
between the sexes, hence there is a sacredness in that 
whole relationship. We are forbidden to destroy it. 
We are commanded to cherish it. 

We see at once that this precept, as in the former 
instances, is joined to and advances from the preceding 
one. The life guarded in the sixth commandment 
exists in sexes, and so exists for the purpose of perpetuat- 
ing itself in successive generations. Hence the marriage 
relation has that main end in view. There are other 
important ends, but they are subordinate to this main 
one. That therefore is a healthful and holy way of 
looking at maniage, of entering it and of living in it, 
which desires and cherishes children as the gift of God, 
his rich blessing upon it. Any other view must fall 
far short of being either healthful or holy. It is said 
that American families are becoming very small, and 

87 



88 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

that many exist without a single child. Where this is 
the case from human desire and purpose, rejecting 
God's offered gifts, it must be clearly seen as contrary 
to the divine law of marriage. I can only touch upon 
the subject at this time and in this place, but I wish to 
make the point in such a way that it cannot be mis- 
understood. 

This commandment, as it covers the whole relation- 
ship between men and women, brings before us a most 
important and delicate subject which beyond question 
ought to receive proper attention from the Christian 
pulpit. Happily our Savior has thrown the delicacy 
and sanctity of his teachings upon the subject, and we 
will now select two passages from these to direct our 
further study. The first directs how men and women 
should regard each other outside of the marriage rela- 
tionship, and the second speaks of the marriage relation 
itself. 

The first passage is found in Matt. 5 : 27, 28. The 
tradition taught ^that the commandment forbade simply 
the act of adultery. More, says Christ, it forbids all 
impure thoughts and desires. Our Savior here teaches 
us very plainly that impure thoughts and desires are 
forbidden not merely as leading to sin, but as sin in 
themselves. 

Let us be as practical as possible about guarding 
against the beginnings of this sin. We who are parents 
should guard against its beginning in our children. We 
are prone to neglect them at a particular point in their 
lives when they most need our guidance, the point when 
a boy becomes a man, when a girl becomes a woman. 
We all agree that ignorance is not the mother of devo- 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 89 

tion, and yet act as if ignorance was the mother of 
purity. Knowledge is the basis of true religion and the 
safe-guard of virture. Our children will learn concern- 
ing the new-born passions which fire their imagination, 
either from impure companions or from you, the pure 
teachers God appoints: and it is a matter of tremendous 
importance whether they learn purely or impurely. If 
a father will take his boy aside and give him full in- 
struction concerning his new life, it may save the father 
many a heart-ache and the boy untold woe and wretch- 
edness. If a mother will in like manner instruct her 
daughter, it will win her confidence and prove a safe- 
guard of purity of inestimable value. These new-born 
passions have a wise purpose in the will of God, and 
governed by his law they become the source of the 
purest and richest blessings. They are as God's gift of 
fire to us. Controlled, it makes our firesides places of 
comfort and cheer ; uncontrolled, it consumes our homes 
and leaves us miserable wanderers over a wintry waste. 
They are, like fire, excellent servants but terrible 
masters. It is well to know their nature and God's law 
for their control. 

We will all do well, and especially the young, to cul- 
tivate a taste for purity, so keen and sensitive that it 
will instinctively turn from the suggestion of impurity 
with loathing. We can do this in selecting our read- 
ing, and there is much need of it. We are in little 
danger from the boldly and openly impure, from vile 
pictures and books. Such are for the already vile, and 
plainly marked " poison " to all others. But men of 
great genius are not always men of pure morals, and 
their works often throw the fascinating glamour of 



90 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

genius around impurity. There are many novels and 
p( ems of insinuating vice and suggestive impurity. It 
is wise to let our novel reading be a very small propor- 
tion of the whole, simply for needed recreation, and 
then only the very best, of noble characters and heroic 
deeds ; and our poetry, of fair ideals and beautiful scenes. 
The nude in art, the immoral in the drama, the lewd in 
literature, however true to nature, though the highest 
specimens of the realistic school — the spirit looking out 
from these is the hideous spirit of lust. A bright 
imagination under the control of conscience is an en- 
nobling possession. .An impure imagination is an ever 
present curse. Soar among the stars, dwell among the 
flowers if you will, but when so many beautiful and 
grand subjects invite you, do not degrade your noble 
powers by diving into filthy pools. The selection of a 
newspaper is not always an easy matter from this point 
of view. However ably conducted, and however cheap, 
that paper is a dangerous visitor to our homes which 
slurs virtue and revels in vice. Let it go to its own 
company, while we welcome the one which tells of vice 
with shame and of virtue with delight. 

We should cultivate the taste for purity in the choice 
of our companionship. Associate with those who tol- 
erate sensual manners, undue familiarity, broad speech, 
unclean stories, and w T e w T ill speedil} T lower our ideas of 
propriety, and dangerously wound our faith in the honor 
of woman and in the virtue of man. Let our acquaint- 
anceship even, as far as it is a matter of our choice, be 
of those whose delight is in pure thinking and feeling, 
in clean speaking and living, and let our friendship, 
which is altogether a matter of choice, be only with the 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 9 1 

pure. There are men, and, alas ! some women, who 
deliberately prefer vice to virtue, the excitement of 
animal passions to the testimony of a good conscience 
and a pure heart, who sneer at chastity and modesty 
and purity, who have none of these in themselves, but 
the reverse, the devil's look in the eye, and the devil's 
lust in the heart. Such should awaken our thorough 
contempt, and oftentimes the most faithful and kindly 
treatment Ave can give them is to let them see very 
plainly how much we despise them. Christian public 
opinion should always seek to awaken repentance and 
restoration, but this it can never do by appearing to 
approve in the slightest degree of the bold and impeni- 
tent slayer of virtue. 

Good books and pure friends delight the mind and 
cultivate the heart. We cannot over-estimate their 
importance. We strive to have in our gardens the 
most beautiful flowers and the finest flavored fruit, but 
we are careful to have no poison vine however brilliant 
its colors trail over the flowers, no poison berries how- 
ever tempting to the sight hang side by side with the 
fruit. Let us take at least as good care of our minds 
and hearts as we do of our gardens. 

Now we may approach the subject of marriage. A 
high ideal of marriage is a great incentive to purity of 
heart. If young people anticipate a pure marriage 
every step towards it must be in the way of virtue. If 
you wish to win a pure white soul for your life-long 
companion you will be unwilling to give less than you 
wish to receive. You will keep your own soul sweet 
and clean. 

Supreme affection adequately tested, and an oppor- 



92 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

t unity to marry, you may regard as the call of God to 
the pure state of marriage ; not a passing fancy, but a 
well tried affection ; not mere admiration for beaut}?- of 
person, but deep regard for beauty of character. This 
may arise suddenly, "love at first sight/' or it may be 
the growth of a long and intimate friendship, only be 
sure it is a supreme and worthy affection. Not mar- 
riage from heedless impulse without thought, not mar- 
riage from convenience without heart, not marriage 
simply to be married because one has a chance and it 
may be now or never. Such motives may seem angelic 
beings beckoning on to a happy life, but may prove to 
be demons leading to wretchedness. Better wait until 
God calls you to enter marriage by giving you a deep 
true love to lead the way. And the opportunity to 
many should be not merely responsive love, but a clear 
intimation in His providence as seen in bodily health 
and surrounding conditions, that you will be able to 
form that sweetest of all places on earth, a Christian 
home. Now in your courtship and engagement cherish 
pure thoughts and noble purposes. Let no thought, 
word or action undermine your own high self-respect 
or the pure regard you should hold for the one you 
love. These you should have now, and when in after 
married life you look back in memory to your courtship 
days. 

Let us now consider the second passage selected from 
the teachings of our Savior which sets forth the nature 
of the marriage relation. This is found in the 10th 
chapter of Mark, from the second to the twelfth verse. 
He clearly teaches that since God hath made them male 
and female a man will leave all other ties and cleave to 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 93 

his wife, and that these twain are no more twain but 
one flesh, for God hath joined them together. 

Marriage is therefore a divine institution founded in 
the nature of man as created by God. There is no 
higher mode of living for man and woman than to be 
husband and wife. It is the most intimate and sacred 
union that can exist on earth, to which all other rela- 
tions are to give place. It is the union of one man 
and one woman for life, whose duties are not only to 
each other and to society, but to God. The legitimate 
power of the State is simply to enforce the law of God. 
If the State attempts to separate those whom God hath 
joined together, or to unite those whom God forbids to 
unite, her laws are nullities at the bar of conscience. 
The polygamy and divorce among the Jews did not 
arise from God's will, but from the hardness of men's 
hearts. They were contrary to God's law and were 
restrained and" almost eradicated by it. Here as every- 
where the teaching of nature is in harmony with the 
Ten Commandments. Men and women are existing 
to-day, and always have been, the wide world over, in 
nearly equal numbers, making provision for such mar- 
riages and for such alone. Besides, the supreme affec- 
tion, which we have seen is the only natural basis of 
marriage, can exist only between two, and is life-long. 

We have an organized system of polygamy within 
the bounds of our land, and the nation is not much dis- 
turbed in conscience by the corrupting abomination. 
Neither of the political parties in the present presiden- 
tial campaign are demanding with any earnestness that 
the laws of God and of the United States against 
polygamy should be enforced in the Territories. They 



0| THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

evidently do not believe that the presentation of such 
a moral issue would secure many votes. The abomina- 
tion goes on, and we, the people, do not much care. 

But there is a worse feature still in our national life. 
The law of God recognizes but one ground of divorce, 
adultery. -This is emphatically taught by our Savior. 
The divorce laws of many States are in open conflict 
with this law of God. Cruelty, desertion, drunkenness 
and lesser causes are grounds of divorce, and in a few 
States the power to grant divorce is left largely to the 
discretion of the courts who frequently can hear but 
one side of the case. So incompatibility of temper is 
deemed a sufficient cause for man to put asunder what 
God has joined together. Our own State keeps close 
to the Christian standard, but she is beginning to feel 
the corrupting influence of bad neighbors. These lax 
divorce laws lower the estimate of marriage : they cul- 
tivate heedlessness in entering marriage : they foster a 
spirit of restlessness in marriage, for many frivolous 
quarrels would be quenched by the permanency of the 
relation which are inflamed by the prospect of an easy 
separation : and they encourage and make light of ii fi- 
delity in marriage. Their whole tendency is to disin- 
tegrate the home and degrade womanhood. 

God's institution of marriage is the foundation of the 
family, and the family is the foundation of Society, the 
State, and the Church. Rome rose by the sanctity of 
her family life, and fell when it was undermined, as any 
fabric however stately will fall when the foundation is 
removed. Her rise was through the courage of her 
men and the virtue of her women. The perpetual fire 
on the altar of the Temple of Vesta tended by a chosen 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 95 

band . of white-robed virgins was a true symbol of her 
strength. But the days of degeneration came and the 
fire flickered and went out. There were no divorces in 
the early years of her history. There were many easily 
obtained divorces in the years of her luxury. Mutual 
consent was all that was needed to break the tie. Now 
the Roman laws in their later laxness are at the basis 
of much of our divorce legislation, and have displaced 
the law of God. We should be aroused from indiffer- 
ence by her experience. Like cause will produce like 
effect. Beyond love of our country Christian sentiment 
should arouse in its strength and impress God's law of 
marriage upon the statute books of our States. 

It is enough to enshrine marriage in our regard that 
it is ordained by God and governed by his law. Now 
all God's laws are for the highest good of man, and 
hence we find many inestimable blessings flowing from 
marriage. 

It confers happiness upon the married. True, there 
are unhappy marriages. Those who marry for property 
will be very apt to find the husband or wife an incum- 
brance. Those who marry heedlessly will find here as 
everywhere that heedlessness brings disaster. But the 
great majority of married people are happier for the 
marriage, as happy as their circumstances and character 
will allow. Poverty can never have the pleasures cf 
wealth, but can have more pleasure in a loving marriage 
than in single loneliness. Love makes many a cottage 
happy. Covetousness can never have the pleasure of 
generosity, but in a loving marriage it finds dwarfing 
influences, and so becomes a smaller barrier to happi- 
ness. Selfishness in whatever form can never have real 



96 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

happiness; but true love in marriage tends to destroy 
selfishness. 

Marriage is God's grand institution for cultivating 
love in human hearts. What would this sin-stricken 
world be without the affections of the family circle, the 
love of husband and wife, parents and children, brothers 
and sisters ? What refining influences come into this 
world with a little child ! What delightful and elevat- 
ing feelings are awakened by a babe ! Oh, mothers ! 
rocking the cradle, you may well look up to God with 
eyes filled with happy tears. He has bestowed upon 
you a most precious gift. You may well look down 
upon your babe with unspeakable love. You may well 
look out into the future picturing for } r our child a noble 
life on earth, and an eternal blessedness in heaven. 
Happiest of women ! you have an immortal soul akin 
to yours in your loving care. How selfish and narrow 
and hard our hearts and lives would become were it not 
for God's gift of children, awakening gratitude to him, 
self-sacrificing love for them and all the sweet sym- 
pathies and tender patient ministries of the home ! What 
more helpless lhan a babe ? God in marriage secures 
the might of love for its helplessness. What more 
ignorant? God secures teachers whose patience is well 
nigh inexhaustible. Is there danger the child may 
become rough and selfish? In the required yielding to 
one another of brothers and sisters of different ages is 
found an antidote of selfishness and the cultivation 
of gentle manners. Certainly the child will need 
government. The family is God's place for cultivating 
obedience to law from the earlest hours of childhood. 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 9? 

Submission to right authority is the spirit of a good 
child, of a good citizen, of a good Christian. 

Is there any wonder then that God guards this blessed 
institution of marriage against all that would pollute and 
destroy it ? If the frequency and earnestness of the 
warnings of the Hoty Scripture against any sin measure 
the tendency of man to commit that sin, then impurity 
is one of the most fearfully prevalent and dreadful sins 
of'the race ; and so the history of the past and of to-day 
plainly teaches. The lurking places of this sin exist in 
every large city. " Dead Seas," some one has called 
them, whose vapors even are deadly, and these seas 
have their bays and inlets in every town and village of 
our land. The Proverbs speak in warning of the strange 
woman. She uses all her charms to corrupt and destroy 
men, especially young men. As she passes along the 
streets she awakens the laugh of bad men, the pity of 
good men, and the horror of the pure. She sinks down 
into the hell of misery and despair. But she sinks not 
alone ; she drags down with her many whom she has 
corrupted. Well may her house be called the gate-way 
of hell ! Once she was a babe in her mother's arms. 
Once she was a beautiful maiden, the pride of her 
brother's heart. But thoughts of evil entered her heart, 
" she forsook the guide of her youth," her footsteps 
took the pathway to hell, and she soon became the 
tempter of others. 

And surely there must be in hell a place still lower 
than hers which belongs to him who first instilled those 
thoughts of evil into her heart, and who led her by the 
hand when her footsteps were first directed in the path- 
way of vice. How will he quail when he stands before 
7 



gS THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

the pure white throne of the Judge of all ! And if 
there is a still lower place in hell it must belong to the 
viper, who, crawling into the family, fastens his glitter- 
ing eyes upon the cherished wife and fascinates her to 
her ruin. The lightning of God's wrath will flash its 
hot cuttings of remorse through his heart, and though 
hers, forevermore. And surely there must be a still 
lower place in hell for the married man who leaves a 
confiding wife, betraying her trust and love, proves 
false to his most solemn vows, and in his sensual lust 
revels with the impure only to make them more impure, 
damning both himself and them. 

Our laws are lax here too. They do not regard 
adultery and its hideous kindred as crimes. To steal 
ten dollars sends a man to prison. To steal happiness 
and honor only gives a right to sue for damages. And 
has Society, the State, no interest in such things ? Surely 
adultery is a crime. It should be so pronounced by the 
State — a crime next in penalty to murder. Public 
opinion has some healthfulness in it, but is unjust in 
giving its severest condemnation to the woman. Even 
when she is the tempter, the man should be at least 
equally condemned ; and it is too weak to demand laws 
making the offense criminal. The more of delicacy and 
sanctity there is thrown around the relation of the' 
sexes, and the more of personal honor there is secured 
to woman, the more elevated and strong will be the 
character of the State ; and her laws should be framed 
like to God's law, to secure these ends. If Tacitus is 
to be believed our forefathers, when they lived under 
the German forests, were comparatively free from the 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 99 

common leprosy of barbarism. They considered there 
was something divine in woman. They reverenced a 
pure family life. They taught the young the spirit of 
purity. It was their custom to bury the adulterer 
alive in the mud. The Anglo-Saxons are the most 
powerful race on earth to-day. One secret of their 
power is that from the first the} 7 have reverenced virtue. 
Our hold on power depends largely upon our hold on 
purity. May it not be, with us, as it was with the 
ancient Romans, that our virtue becomes corrupted by 
the power and luxury it has gained. However silent 
our laws may be, let us never forget that God is not 
silent. The Bible does not whisper, it thunders peal on 
peal the hot denunciations of divine wrath against the 
adulterer. 

Marriage is further ennobled in our thought since 
God has chosen this most intimate and sacred union to 
illustrate the union between Christ and His Church. 
The union illustrated throws its clear light back upon 
the illustration, and shows married people the spirit 
which should rule their lives. Whatever motives have 
led the way, and however well or poorly suited to each 
other they may be, they have entered the relationship, 
they have assumed its duties, and now let them cultivate 
that spirit which alone can secure blessing in marriage 
and honor God. u Wives, submit yourselves unto your 
own husbands, as unto the Lord." Love and honor 
him. Cherish this spirit, for God hath made him head 
of the family. " He is the head of the wife even as 
Christ is head of the Church." " Husbands, love yonr 
wives, even as Christ also loved the Church." Cherish 



IO0 THE TEX COMMAXDMEXTS. 

that self-sacrificing, peculiar, ever-faithful love for her 
which shall more and more resemble the love Christ 
bears His Church. Know you not that of yuu twain 
God hath made one flesh ? that you are joined to each 
other by his holy and blessed institution of marriage ? 
Whatever mistakes you may have made, do not try to 
correct them by making still others, but cultivate the 
spirit God directs and you will rind the blessedness he 
gives. 

Turn our thoughts now to the union between God 
and His people. On the plains of Northern Italy there 
stands an ancient and beautiful city. Near its center 
rises a building of pure white marble, wonderful for its 
grandeur and beauty, seeming more like a dream from 
heaven than a creation of the earth. As one stands 
upon the roof of this cathedral of Milan, surrounded by 
the multitude of its dazzling pinnacles and spires, he may 
look far off to the north, over the plains and hills, until 
his eye rests upon the snow-clad summits of the Alps, 
those other pinnacles and spires which God himself 
created, and clothed with the ever pure white garments 
of the skies. So, from this purest of earth's relation- 
ship we lift o « thoughts to the mystical union of life 
and love, between the heaven and the earth, the 
marriage of the Church to her Divine Lord. Who 
shall speak of the love and faithfulness of this Divine 
Bridegroom, the love which knows no changing, which 
led Him to lay down His life for His Church ? How 
steadily and warmly should her love go out to Him ! 
Let her never listen to the whispers of the false world. 
Let coldness never chill her heart, but may she be 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 101 

always heavenly minded and clothed in the spotless 
robe of His righteousness, adorned as a Bride for her 
Husband. Let us all remember we are living in the pres- 
ence of God, under the pure eyes of our Savior. Let 
us have our thoughts consciously open to His inspec- 
tion and our lives pure in His sight. 



THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 

"Thou shalt not steal."— Ex. 20: 15. 

This globe upon which we live belongs to God. He 
made it. His creative power brought it through various 
stages to its present condition. He clothed it with 
beauty over mountain and plain and sea, and He has 
endowed it with all its fruitfulness. It is His. He has 
given a life interest in it to man, made it his home 
during the first, the material stage of his existence. 
With regard to the earth itself and all it contains man 
is simply God's tenant. He owes homage and obedience 
to the owner. The money we give to sustain the public 
worship of God and to advance His cause is not charity 
in the usual sense of that word, but justice, His due. 
That we are left judges of the amount and the direction 
of our contributions, only increases our obligation ; as if 
a landlord should say to his tenant, " Make all you can 
from the farm and give me what you think is a just 
rent." And the appeal to our honor is greater than it 
could be in any such case, since all we are as well as all 
we have comes from God. 

As with our general right in the earth, so with our 
particular property among each other. The right of 
individual property comes from God. This important 
truth should be clearly seen and firmly held, especially 
in our land and day. It does not arise from the useful- 
ness of the arrangement to the well-being of society. 
The expediency of any arrangement is a matter of 
102 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 103 

opinion, and the opinion of even the great majority has 
no control over the conscience of those who think 
differently. But God has written on the conscience, 
" Thou shalt not steal," and reason as he may, man 
cannot entirely destroy the writing. It does not arise 
from any social agreement or compact, expressed or 
implied. Common consent does not create the right of 
property. It can neither give it, nor take it away. All 
it can do is simply to recognize the fact that man has a 
right to the results of his enterprise and labor. A man 
takes a cup of water from a flowing river. It is his. If 
all men should combine to take it away from him, they 
would have to disobey the still small voice of quiet 
authority speaking in their souls, " Thou shalt not 
steal." Neither does the right of individual property 
arise from the law of the State or Nation. It exists 
prior to such law and entirely independent of it. The 
law cannot ignore the right, cannot deprive a man of 
his right. Neither can an unjust law give a moral title 
to property. It cannot justify a conscientious man in 
entering upon its possession. The saying, " I will take 
all the law gives me," is either immoral or thoughtless. 
It amounts to saying, "I will make the law of the land 
rather than the law of God my rule of conduct in 
matters of property." The province of the State is 
simply to define and enforce the law of God, to guard 
the right, provide for its transfer and for its descent 
through the generations. 

.The only possible source of the individual right of 
property is the will of God, and he has written his will 
very clearly in the nature of property itself, and upon 
the conscience of man. This commandment guards a 



104 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 



God-given right. As we have seen a sacredness in 
human life, and in the relationship of the sexes, so here 
we see there is a sacredness in the right of individual 
propert}^. We are commanded to cherish it. We are 
forbidden to destroy it. 

What is property? Look again at the globe, and 
there are some things upon it now which did not exist 
when it was prepared for man's home. There are ships 
upon the sea, opulent cities upon the coasts and rivers, 
towns, villages and country homes widely scattered 
over many lands, cultivated farms where forests waved, 
great highways, crossing plains and piercing mountains, 
and waving over all the plume of factory smoke. Not 
a single one of these things or a single element of them 
has been brought to the earth from any other realm. 
All these things have come from the earth itself, and 
they have all come forth at the bidding of a single 
agency, the labor of man. Property is the creature of 
man's toil. It is the material of the earth changed in 
form or position by man's labor. The cup of water 
taken from the river, the apple picked or cultivated, the 
stone cut from the mountain, whether builded into a 
wall or carved into a statue, wherever the material of 
the earth is changed by human labor there is the right 
of property. A recent writer claims that he owns the 
pen with which he writes, for labor has brought the 
material of the earth into the shape of the pen, and he 
has purchased this result of labor with the result of his 
labors in other directions; and undoubtedly he is right. 
Then he denies man's right to individual property in 
land, saj's he has no more right to the land than he has 
to the air or the sky. But man cannot change the air 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 105 

or slry by his labor, while he does change the land as 
radically as the material of the pen. The main thing 
in land values with us to-day is not the land, strange as 
it may seem, but the labor that has been expended upon 
the land and its surroundings, the nearness and high- 
ways to markets, the generous tillage of generations 
and the accumulation of improvements, and these are 
inseparable from the land. 

God's will written upon the nature of property and 
upon the conscience of man is simply this — that every 
man has the individual right to the results of his own 
labor. Social compacts and State laws have but one 
legitimate province, to guard this divinely given right. 
They should protect every man in the production and 
holding of property, the result of his own labor. In 
proportion as they do this they cultivate in man high 
and noble qualities, industry, energy, enterprise, fore- 
sight, economy, integrity, honesty — qualities of great 
value to the individual and society — while they check 
qualities injurious to both, as idleness, prodigality, 
avarice and dishonesty. They foster comfort and true 
culture, while they check luxury and guard against the 
want of the necessities of life. That State laws have 
not always had this aim, is a matter of history. In some 
lands they have assuredly fostered an aristocracy of 
wealth. That State laws do not fully secure these 
results, is a matter of fact, seen in our own land and in all 
lands to-day- Even if they were perfect it would require 
complete and universal obedience to them to secure 
their full results; and that they are human laws, con- 
fesses their imperfection. Wherever intense selfishness 
exists, wedded in some cases to energy and enterprise, 



Io6 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

and in other cases to idleness and prodigality, there 
immense fortunes will exist by the side of abject poverty. 
It is possible also that State laws and social conditions 
may give opportunities and approval to unscrupulous 
selfish energy, while they also encourage selfish idleness, 
and so help bnild the palace on the avenue where 
luxury revels, and the tenement house on the back 
street where men, women and children are crowded in 
misery and starvation. 

But while social institutions may be unjust and in 
effect foster stealing, the law of God forbids stealing 
and is always just. This precept sends forth justice to 
solve the great problem of poverty. It gives every man 
a right to the results of his labor. Individual obedience 
and the uplift of social conditions and State laws to this 
standard will secure a just distribution of the accumu- 
lated property of the world. There are loud cries of 
grasping unrest in the world to-day. " Monopoly and 
Trusts," cries Wealth. "Combination and strikes," 
shouts Labor. Competition is the pass-word of political 
economy. Amid the warring sounds our Christian 
civilization is beginning to hear the quiet voice of this 
commandment commending just arbitration and hearty 
co-operation to solve her difficult problems. 

Beneath these loud cries are the deep mutterings of 
social unrest. In Europe there have arisen societies 
whose common object is social revolution, and we do 
well to have more than a general far-off interest in the 
matter, since there is a large immigration of these 
societies into our nation, embracing many of their ablest 
and most radical leaders, who make this land their 
refuge when they dare no longer remain in their own. 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 107 

There are many grades of Socialists and Communists, 
and comparatively few probably deserve the name of 
Anarchists, but certainly this name may be given to 
many of their most radical leaders. Their base demand 
is that marriage and private property shall be abolished. 
They cast off the authority of God. " There is no 
God," " There is no right nor wrong," " There is no 
future life," "Man is an animal, though of a high order 
— let him live as an animal." Shall we say that these are 
the hot outbreathings of a sinful nature? Yes, but the 
sin is not all on their side. It is sinful nature ground 
down into a mass of suffering and degradation by the 
heel of oppression, until, aroused by the consciousness 
of bitter wrong and rank injustice, it flames up in wrath 
and clamors to destroy and to enjoy. Shall we shut 
them out from our land ? What ! shut out the oppressed 
because they are not angels ! Let them find a refuge, 
but let it be a refuge in a religion and an education 
which live justly, in obedience to this commandment. 
Their wild and angry opinions can never even touch the 
secure foundation upon which our Christian society is 
builded. Marriage and the right of private property 
are not civil institutions, to be changed or abolished by 
the caprice of the people, but divine institutions based 
upon the authority of God. 

Let us now direct our attention to some particulars in 
which this commandment guards the right of private 
property. Of course outright robbery and theft are for- 
bidden. These vices like all others are not fully formed 
at once. They grow from small beginnings. A boy 
may begin to steal at his mother's cake basket or sugar 
bowl when he takes what he knows is not his, what his 



108 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

mother would not give him if he asked, and because 
his mother does not see him. That course of action 
carried out a little further may bring him to the state- 
prison. Sometimes a boy at school stronger than his 
fellow takes from him something he wants, and laughs 
in his face when he complains. Such a boy is called a 
bully, and there is hardly a more contemptible charac- 
ter on the face of the earth than a grown up bully. He 
uses his strength to oppress when he ought to protect 
the weak. He is a robber, and whether he gets there or 
not he ought to go to state-prison. Boys and girls, 
never take anything that does not belong to you, not 
even a pin. Be honest. 

But this commandment, like all the others, in for- 
bidding the greatest offense forbids all lesser ones of 
kindred character, and the spirit which prompts to such, 
and it commands the reverse spirit and action. A very 
little study will probably show that if we were to be 
judged simply by this commandment, leaving all the 
others out of view, the very best of us would have to 
plead "guilty" before the throne of God. There are 
many ways of breaking the law which are so common 
that even good people practice them without suspecting 
themselves of transgressing. They have not thought 
carefully of the matter. I have heard these expositions 
called " eye-openers." I intend that they shall deserve 
the name, for only in this way can they be of any profit 
to us. Let me speak plainly, since I am speaking to 
myself as well as to you, and since we are trying to- 
gether simply to find out the important truth, how the 
law of God in all its precepts applies to our hearts and 
lives. 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, 109 

Where a transfer of property is made we are com- 
manded to make an honest bargain, to see that an 
equivalent is given and received. Instead of each think- 
ing and planning only for himself, he is to think and 
plan for the other man as well. Each is to secure the 
other in his rights. Yet there are several maxims 
familiar in a Christian community which indicate a pre- 
vailing opinion and practice opposed to this law. " It 
is better to cheat than to be cheated." " Let the 
buyer take care of himself," " The buyer is at the 
mercy of the seller." The seller generally has the 
weights and measures in his care, in store and on 
farm. If you have any suspicion your's are just a little 
short, rest not until they are known to be absolutely 
correct. Think not this is a little thing. God calls it 
by a very strong name, saying that a false balance is an 
abomination to him. The seller also has the best 
means of knowing of the quality of the article sold. A 
lady buys a piece of silk in the city and at home finds 
a flaw in the middle. We all condemn the merchant in 
New York. But if he comes to us to buy a horse, that 
is a different matter. Let him keep his eyes open. In 
selling horses as in selling silks all flaws should be 
revealed. 

There is a large class of offenses committed against 
the general public which would not be committed be- 
tween individuals, but it is evident that a large number 
on one side makes no difference in the rule of right. 
This applies to all adulterations. Probably there is great 
adulteration of liquors, there ma}* be some adulteration 
of sugars, but we are not engaged in these lines and 
the matter though interesting does not concern our 



HO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

honesty. But we are quite generally engaged in the 
milk business. There is a certain kind of feed used 
for cows which produces large quantities of milk. It 
is claimed also that the quality of this milk is good. 
Still the fact remains that those who raise milk for 
butter-making never use this kind of feed, only those 
who raise milk for sale. The only way the milk busi- 
ness can be defended from the charge of Sabbath 
desecration is that it affords a needed article of diet to 
multitudes, especially the children, in the great city. 
That this is so should lead a conscientious man to be 
ver}^ careful that this important article of diet is pure 
and wholesome. Feed the children of others as you 
would feed your own. A certain chemical preparation 
is sold in large quanties in this community whose sole 
use is to give butter a fine yellow appearance, increas- 
ing its value for sale. It is not the rich yellow butter 
it sells for, but poor white butter colored, and the in- 
creased price must be called the wages of fraud. It is 
frequently said and perhaps it is sometimes true, but it 
can never be honest, that the best apples and potatoes 
are in the top of the barrel. 

The buyer too should regard the rights of the other 
man. The seller surely has a right to the value of the 
article and to a proper return for his enterprise in bring- 
ing it to the hand of the buyer, and also to be considered 
honest. What means then this almost universal custom 
of beating down the price ? Is it to give the seller his 
just dues, to get the article at its just price ; or is it to 
get it at its lowest possible price, taking advantage of 
the weaker will or ignorance or necessity of the seller? 

The labor problem is one of the perplexing questions 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 1 1 1 

of the day, made so largely by the vast corporations and 
combinations engaged in it. We have the simple ele- 
ments of it in our experience in hiring labor on our 
farms, and the principles of this commandment easily 
applied to these would, if faithfully applied to the 
larger and. more complex problem, fully solve it. 
Some of us sell our labor. We should be very care- 
ful to give what we sell in quality and in quantity. 
Whether the buyer is present or absent we should 
take care of his interest in our labor, and see that it is 
fully satisfied. To get all the wages we can and give 
as little labor as possible is not being in harmony with 
this law. On the other hand the buyer of labor has a 
very clear duty. It is often all a poor man has to 
sell. He is often so situated that he must have work or 
starve, and he is often almost entirely dependent upon 
us for work, and we need his labor. Now we are to 
give him a just price for his labor, that is of course what 
it is worth to us. We are not to take advantage of his 
situation and hire him at starvation wages. We are not 
to withhold his wages a moment after they are due. 
We are to so deal with others that they have no cause 
to complain of us to God. And if Labor and Capital, 
whether on a small or large scale, would each think of 
its obligation to the other under God's law, the problem 
would be solved. The supply and demand theory of 
political economy is not so wise as the " Thou shalt not 
steal " of God. 

The commandment covers that large field of business 
where property is not transferred, but intrusted. Some- 
times men are paid for caring for money or other 
property, and rules for its care are expressed or implied, 



112 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

as in the ease of a public officer or treasurer, the cashier 
o( a bank, the trustee or executor of an estate. In all 
such cases the right is not to use, the duty is to care 
for and guard. When such a one uses the property in 
his own business or in speculation, he steals. He prob- 
ably intends to return it, nevertheless the act is stealing. 
He takes that which does not belong to him without 
the consent of the owner and uses it for himself. If he 
returns it, he returns stolen property, and is not dis- 
covered. If he does not return it he is discovered. That 
is all the difference. He keeps that which he had no 
right to have. His having it in his own use was steal- 
ing. Keeping it is only continued stealing. Embezzle- 
ment, defalcation, breach of trust, are fine words we 
have invented to make light of a serious offense. Even 
with these words it needs to be said, that it is not the 
discovery that deserves them so much, as the thing that 
is discovered. It is not the failure to return that is 
the embezzlement. It is the taking, in the first stage of 
it. 

The borrower of an}~thing does not own it. He only 
has the right to use. He should be sure he has the 
power to keep before he borrows, should take the best 
possible care of it while he has it, and should be careful 
to return it at the proper time. This certainly applies 
to an umbrella, and it applies also to money. The 
borrower of mone}^, while he has the right to use it for 
himself, has no right to unduly risk it. He should take 
extra care of it, that he may make a full return. It is 
not his. The lender of money has a right to seek 
security and a proper interest for the use of his money, 
but he has no right to take advantage of the necessity 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 1 1 3 

of the borrower. The rule, " Think of the other man — 
do not steal from him," applies here too, and to the 
lender as much as to the borrower. Fair Credit is the 
inspiring spirit of much of the business activity in 
Christian lands. She can only remain fair as she stands 
radiant in the light of this commandment. The pay- 
ment of a debt is a religious obligation. 

There are cases where a transfer of property is made 
but nothing is returned. This is a very clear case, you 
will say at once. It is stealing. By some standard or 
other the parties maybe in agreement, yet it is stealing. 
Then all betting is stealing, whether it be about a horse 
race or a presidential election, whether for a pair of 
gloves or for a thousand dollars. The subject and amount 
have no effect upon the nature of the transaction. So 
also with lottery and gambling — the place and object 
do not change the nature of the act. It is just as much 
stealing at a church-fair for some trifling thing as it is 
in a low bar-room for drinks, or in a gambling palace 
for large amounts of money: True, all are agreed who 
bet or gamble ; each would win if he could, and feels in 
honor bound to give when the other wins. But that 
only puts this color on it; One steals from those who 
would steal from him, if they could, that is, one is not 
only a thief, but is associating with thieves. 

There are certain transactions in the Stock and 
Produce Exchanges of our great cities which it would 
be hard to find more proper names for than betting and 
gambling. The advance in material prosperity so 
marvelous in our civilization is largely due to those 
energetic and courageous men who risk their fortunes 
in great enterprises. These exchanges give a wide field 
8 



114 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

of legitimate business to such men in whom often splendid 
honesty is combined with great business ability. Large 
fortunes are frequently and quickly and honorably 
made by giving a just equivalent in management and 
enterprise. • 

But, on the other hand, that is a very significant word 
heard sometimes in exchanges, " a corner." One man 
or set of men quietly buys nearly all the stock of a 
certain railroad that is in the market. Intimations are 
now thrown out and offers to sell made in such a way 
that the stock is depressed, and other dealers and their 
clients, thinking it is going still lower, sell stock they do 
not possess, promising to deliver it at a certain time, 
believing that they Avill be able to buy before that time 
at a still lower figure, and so make money. Those who 
already hold nearly all the stock purchase these prom- 
ises to deliver stock, well knowing that such stock can- 
not be obtained except from themselves. They have 
the sellers now in a corner and begin to squeeze them 
to deliver the promised stock. This they can only do 
by buying it of the men who have them in the corner, at 
their own prices, and this they must do, or fail in busi- 
ness. So they pay double or thribble the price for which 
they promised to sell, and fhe holder of the stock both 
keeps it and pockets the money. In the recent wheat 
" corner" in Chicago in the last two days of September 
the price of wheat rose from less than a dollar to over 
two dollars a bushel, because one man held nearly all 
the wheat in the city and also many promises to deliver 
wheat on those days, which the promisors could only 
fulfill by buying of him on his own terms. Thus he 
made a large fortune in a few days, while others lost a 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 115 

like amount, and he made it without giving an equiva- 
lent. 

Suppose now the "corner" was one of force instead 
of deceit, and one man had a dozen men in a corner of 
a room and at the point of a revolver threatened their 
lives unless they bought their way out at his price. 
That would be robbery, and it would make no differ- 
ence in principle if all those men had just been engaged 
in a desperate struggle each to get all the others in the 
corner. One man has succeeded, that is all, but it is 
success in robbery. Yet our sympathies do not go out 
very warmly to the robbed, since they were trying to 
rob, though their families perhaps are brought down 
from luxury to need in an instant. But our sympathies 
must go out to the poor who must feel sooner or later 
the effects of the growth of immense fortunes by specu- 
lative robbery. The following week in Chicago the 
bakers put up the price of bread one cent a loaf. That 
means suffering to many poor. This was done, not 
because wheat was scarce in the country — there is 
plenty ; not because there are no facilities to bring it 
to the centers of population — there are the best ; but* 
because a fictitious value is given to it by " cornering " 
it. Now, it is quite evident that not only are the men 
engaged in such robbery at fault, but the laws are at 
fault that provide for and permit it, and the social con- 
dition is at fault that applauds and welcomes such a 
robber to its highest ranks. Large " corners " occur 
but seldom, but much of the buying and selling stocks 
and produce is not dealing in the articles themselves, in 
either present or future values, but simply amounts to 
betting on the rise or fall of prices. Some system 



1 16 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

ought to be devised to prevent this, and at the same 
time provide for the legitimate trade on a large scale 
and the fostering of large and daring enterprises. 
Until this is devised and carried out some of the best 
places in the land on which to write this commandment 
of God, k> Thou shalt not steal," are the doors of the 
Stock and Produce Exchanges. 

This commandment applies of course to corporations 
and communities and to individual relations to these, 
ill membership or in dealings. It is quite obvious that 
when individuals combine in companies, they neither 
lose their rights nor lay aside their duties. Corpora- 
tions have no right to take advantage of the necessity 
of men, no right to crush the poor, no right to make 
slaves of their employees. Each member, though he 
tries to shield himself in the crowd,, is seen by the 
Great Judge. Churches should be examples of honor- 
able dealing. On the other hand, the prevalent opinion 
that one may take advantage of a corporation without 
sin, is wrong. A jury sometimes gives a heavy verdict 
against a corporation, not so much from the justice of 
the case as because it is a corporation. They in effect 
steal from the corporation, for, though they do not put 
the money in their own pockets, giving stolen property 
away does not lessen guilt. There are some who do 
not seem to think it wrong to steal from the nation or 
the community. They try to evade their taxes, or seek 
not a just assessment but the lowest possible assessment 
of their property. So men working for a corporation 
or community often fail to give the full time and labor 
they would give if their employer was looking on. 
Many are conscientious, but some are not. It is hardly 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 117 

worth while to go to Albany or Washington for 
instanceSo Working out the road tax is a sufficient 
example. 

Our consciences should be sensitive on this whole 
subject. Honesty to one another is a duty we owe to 
God. 

There is one feature of this commandment which 
does not belong to the others so fully and clearly, that 
is the possibility and duty of restitution. If any are con- 
scious that you have wronged others in this matter there 
is but one thing for you to do, if it is in your power. 
Make full restitution. No matter how much it may be 
to your shame, no matter how much it may cost you. 
There can be no true repentance while you remain in 
possession of the fruits of wrong doing. That is not 
leaving sin, but continuing in it. You cannot hope to 
have forgiveness in Christ or any interest in him until 
full restitution is made. 

The heart of honesty to our fellowmen is honesty to 
God. It is because we have withheld from Him his 
due, the consecration of our hearts and lives ; because 
we have been dishonest to Him, that we are prone to be 
dishonest with each other. God in Christ is providing 
for and calling for the restitution of our hearts and lives 
to him. 



THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. 

" Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor." — Ex. 

2,): 16. 

We at once think of a court of justice and of bear- 
ing witness there. The great Law-giver and Judge 
comes by this commandment into these courts, His rep- 
resentatives on earth, and directs that all their rules 
and practices shall be administered in the interest of 
truth, and that judges and lawyers shall devote all their 
energies to this end. Lawyers, in managing the causes 
of their clients and in the examination and cross exam- 
ination of witnesses, are here commanded to seek only 
the truth and to seek the whole truth, and judges on 
the bench are to see that the truth is discovered and 
prevails. 

To bear false witness before such courts, to take away 
the property, reputation, libert}^ or life of our neighbor, 
is the highest offense against this commandment. As 
the less is included in the greater, all lesser offenses of 
kindred nature and all feelings and dispositions natu- 
rally leading to them are included in the prohibition, 
and the reverse feelings and acts are commanded. 

Among the dispositions forbidden, a very important 
and controlling one is want of loyalty to truth. The 
commandment therefore checks all propensities to lying, 
and commands truthfulness of speech to and about our 
neighbor. It is very difficult to over-estimate the value 
of truth or the importance of being truthful in char- 
118 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 1 19 

acter and speech. There is a reality to the things and 
the laws which surround us and are within us which we 
call truth. When our thoughts exactly correspond 
with this reality we have apprehended truth. When 
we conform ourselves to this we are true. The knowl- 
edge of truth is of great value to us if it leads us to be 
true, to be in harmony with nature and to obey her 
laws. If our thought does not exactly correspond with 
this reality we are in error, and error is a mischief to 
us. We disobey the laws, we abuse the things about 
us, we are like blind men striking against obstacles, 
falling into pits. The nature of things remains 
unchanged, the laws are immutable, but we are false to 
them. Truth is not merely to be known, it is to be 
transmuted into life. Man is to be so hearty in his 
allegiance to the truth he knows that he lives it and 
speaks it. The man who knows the truth and disobeys 
it is false in his nature. He may not deceive his neigh- 
bors as to himself. Every one may know he is a false 
man, but his whole life is bearing false witness as to 
the truth, and as to it may deceive many. The greater 
part of the truth we possess we have derived from 
others. A man deprived of all communication with 
his fellows would gain but little knowledge by his own 
unaided observation. There is an exchange of truth. 
Men who search in one realm give the truth they find 
to their fellows who are searching in other realms, and 
receive truth from them in return, and each generation 
leaves its rich legacy of inherited and acquired truth 
to the following, and thus the race advances in the 
knowledge of truth. 

Wide is the realm of truth, in earth and sky, in matter 



120 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

and spirit, in time and eternity. Man should 
himself or his fellow out from any portion of it. Dp u 
the truth in nature and her Lai xistence depends. 

We reap what we sow. Bread is food. E iiows 

cause. We know upon what to depend. Truth is 

--ential to man's intellectual, moral and sphitual 
well-being. We a: e to search for it. we are to yield 
selves to it in loyal obedience, and we are to faithfully 
communicate it. If any one bears false witness to any 
part of the wide realm of truth it is always against his 
neighbor, depriving him wrongful!}' of that which is of 
the greatest importance to his well-being. 

Great is the difference between truth and falsehood. 
Infinity and eternity cannot measure it. Of God it is 
said: -He is light. He is the truth." Of the Devil it 
is said: "There is no truth in him. He is a liar and 
the father of it." Hell is the home of universal false- 
hood and distrust, Each one there is alone in the i 
of others, deceiving and being deceived, distrusting and 
being distrusted. Heaven is the home of universal 
truth and confidence. Each one there is a member of a 
blessed society, trusting and being trusted, a society of 
clear eyes and bright faces, of true tongues and loving 
hearts. Oh, radiant Truth ! we yield thee our alle- 
giance. Lead thou us on to ever higher and more 
shining heights, even up to heaven and God! The 
more worthy we become of confidence and the more 
confidence we have in each other the more will the 
society on earth resemble that of heaven. The 
influence of falsehood is to disorganize society. It brings 
suspicion and distrust into the community, even in: 
family, and, alas ! makes one deserving only of distrust. 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 121 

False witness is always against our neighbor, against 
society. 

The more we follow truth the nearer we advance to 
God. The truths in nature are His thoughts, written 
on the heavens in light, on the earth in beauty, on our 
souls in virtue. As we express truth we help others 
advance to him, by small steps or large, according to 
the importance of the truths we speak. But false wit- 
ness is always against our neighbor, since it leads him 
to wander away from God. 

Other commandments have taught us the sacredness 
of human life, of the relation between the sexes, of 
property. This teaches us the sacredness of truth. 
The world itself is a great court. God is the ever-pres- 
ent Judge. Whenever we speak Ave speak as witnesses 
about some person or thing. The third commandment 
directs that speech, the crowning glory of man, shall be 
used in the praise of God. This commandment further 
directs us to use this noble gift of intelligent speech in 
conveying truth to our fellow man. We are to speak 
truth to our neighbor in all matters of common concern ; 
and we are to speak truth of our neighbor whenever 
we speak of him. 

The commandment requires truth in ordinary conver- 
sation. Loyalty to truth will put us on our guard 
against certain tendencies in describing things or nar- 
rating events which would leave a false impression. 
Conjecture and partial information will be spoken of as 
such, not made to pass for complete knowledge. We 
will strive to know fully that we may speak clearly. 
Vividness, sprightliness and color will be employed to 
interest in and set forth the truth, not to gain applause^ 



IJ2 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

and all exaggeration will be avoided. Our aim will not 
be selfish, to be considered as having had a wonderful 
experience, or as having fine descriptive powers, or as 
being well informed, but will be simply to convey truth 
to our neighbor. Some subjects are pleasant, others are 
unpleasant. Christian courtesy and gentleness will 
always have due consideration for the tastes and feel- 
ings of others. This commandment commends the 
choice of pleasing and wholesome subjects of conversa- 
tion, and also the truthful expression of personal approval 
and commendation, but it frowns upon flattery, insin- 
cerit}^ and deceit. 

In all those cases in which we speak to our neighbor 
with intent to lead him to a desired line of conduct, our 
self-interest may be aroused against our loyalty to truth. 
It is in such cases that much of the casuistry upon this 
subject has arisen. The mind of man has been active 
in devising ways of avoiding this rule of truth-telling 
when it stood in the way of his selfish interests, and has 
often succeeded in deceiving his own conscience. The 
subtleties of casuistry, instead of clearing, are apt to 
cloud our views of right and wrong. When a man 
allows himself to consider whether it is ever right for 
him to do wrong, he has already become so confused in 
mind and conscience that he is quite apt to decide that 
his self-interest is more important than God's eternal 
laws, or at least that he may exercise his ingenuity in 
evading them. Mental reservation, double meaning, 
significant silence, the end justifies the means, and all 
kindred evasions, may quiet a confused conscience, but 
will never do to plead before a truth-loving God. 

But, says the business man, must I reveal the defects 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 1 23 

in the property I am trying to sell ? Must I reveal the 
fact I have skillfully acquired, that prices in the market 
will be much lower to-morrow ? Certainly you must, or 
you will both lie and steal in one act. But, says the 
Jesuit, is not a lie justified if thereby I greatly advance 
the cause of the Church ? Ask the business man what 
he thinks about it. His conscience will probably have 
clear and strong views where his interests are not so 
strong. The plea of the detective is that he may lie to 
the criminal since he has no right to the truth. But the 
criminal's right is not the only right involved. That 
advance of justice which causes justice herself to blush, 
and at the same time undermines the truthful character 
of the people, is an advance in the wrong direction. 
Political managers, speakers and papers are not exempt 
from this commandment, though many of them seem to 
act as if they were. The conscience of some politicians 
must be a very queer kind of thing, or else they have 
never heard of this commandment. The fair discussion 
of great issues, and a deliberate and careful decision upon 
them, afford a training of national intellect and charac- 
ter of great value. But in proportion as pretense and 
sophistry, false declarations and false promises, deceit 
and fraud enter political campaigns, they destroy the 
truthfulness of the national character. In the whole 
realm of influencing the conduct of others we will do 
better to go directly to the commandment for our rule 
of life than to the teachings of the Jesuits. Truth is 
sacred. A lie is abominable in God's sight. Better 
far be defeated by adherence to the right than triumph 
by the practice of wrong. There is a success that is not 
worth what it costs. 



124 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

Ill the training of children both at home and in school 
we should constantly recognize that truthfulness is 
absolutely essential to their intellectual and moral well- 
being. It is an honor to have it said of man or child, 
" He always speaks the truth. You can depend upon 
him. There is no deceit in him." Truthfulness of 
character enables a man to pass with uplifted head 
among his fellows, frankly looking them in the face. A 
false character has either a downcast, sneaking look, or 
a brazen boldness which repels. A true man walks 
uprightly before God, having His approval. A false 
man skulks away from God, conscious of His condem- 
nation. 

We are to speak truth not only to our neighbor but 
about him. This commandment guards a man's repu- 
tation. 

" Good name in man or woman 
Is the immediate jewel of their souls." 

Reputation is one of our most valuable possessions, but 
it is unlike all the others in a striking respect. Man 
has his other precious possessions largely in his own 
keeping, his life, his wife, his property, his character, 
but his reputation is entirely in the keeping of his 
neighbors. A man's character no one can touch but 
himself. A man's reputation any one can touch except 
himself. To wound a reputation is to betray a sacred 
trust God has placed in our hands. We are our 
brother's keeper in all respects to some extent. We are 
the keeper of his reputation to the fall extent. We 
should guard it as we have a right to desire him to guard 
ours. 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. \2$ 

This commandment gives each man a right to have 
his reputation the exact expression of his character. It 
is evident it does not guard hypocrisy. It upholds 
truth, not falsehood. It is for the interest of all to 
have hypocrisy unmasked, even of the hypocrite him- 
self, and it may become our solemn duty to unmask it. 
In detecting a hypocrite we should be very sure of the 
detection. We should not allow the confidence a life 
should win to be undermined by a single action, or even 
by several separate actions, but be sure that the whole 
course of life is wilfully in the opposite direction from 
the appearance. Having made the detection we should 
reveal it only from a sense of duty, for the interest of 
our neighbors when concealing it would be false to 
them, never from revenge or any evil feeling to the 
hypocrite, but trying to win him to a true life. Christ 
unmasked the Pharisees, but it was to awaken them to 
a sense of their sin and especially to defend the multi- 
tude against their false influence. 

The invention of evil reports about our neighbor is 
of course the highest offense against his reputation, but 
it is of infrequent occurrence. Such a slanderer is a 
foul compound of falsehood and malice, and is odious in 
God's sight and contemptible in man's. Some men's 
minds are quickened in controversy to remember all the 
evil things they have ever heard about their neighbors, 
even years ago, and without any restraint or regard for 
truth their angry tongues pour forth the bitter tale. 
But such offenses also are rare — the culmination of anger 
and malice with reckless indifference to truth. It is for 
us to guard against the small beginnings of propensities 
whose culmination is so hideous. 



126 THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

It is certainly not wrong to speak about our neigh- 
bors. Ordinary conversation may and should be about 
persons as well as things. Men and women, their lives, 
their affairs, their characters, are the most interesting and 
often the most profitable subjects of conversation. But 
we should be so true to them and to ourselves that we 
only speak of them in their absence as w r e would in 
their presence, and as we have a right to desire them to 
speak of us. It may often be our duty to warn against 
the evil propensities of others, but the duty should be 
clear and the warning truthful and kindly, and should 
be accompanied with a full acknowledgment of good 
qualities when possible. We should guard against 
secret prejudice against our neighbor, or envy of him, 
and should cultivate such love for him that we will 
rejoice in his good qualities and in his good name, that 
we will sorrow over the faults in him we cannot help 
seeing, and throw over them the garment of Christian 
charity, rather than exulting to proclaim them to the 
world. We should have the " charity that thinketh no 
evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoicethin the truth." 
If we cannot speak truthfully in favor of our neighbor, 
and no need of warning others exists, it is generally our 
duty not to speak at all. 

Some try to ease their conscience in repeating a bad 
stoiy by saying they "do not believe it." This is 
abominable. Refute it, then, when it comes to your 
ears, but do not let your tongue spread it. To say that 
"they are sorry for it," is very little better. We can 
not justify our speaking of another's fall by our allegiance 
to the particular virtue from which he fell. Our hearty 
J.ove for honesty and purity will lead us to be pure and 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 127 

honest, not to talk about it, certainly not to speak of the 
impurity and dishonesty of others. We will cherish the 
virtue in the holy of holies of our hearts and not gloat 
over the one who has fallen — telling it with smooth 
tongue as good news — but look upon him with tear- 
dimmed eyes, and speak of him only when needed to 
warn the purity and honesty of others. 

This commandment should govern not only our 
tongues but our hearts and ears as well. It forbids an 
appetite for gossip, a desire to hear detraction and a 
tendency to form unfavorable opinions of others. By 
holding our peace when we have it in our power to defend, 
by failing to mention the good when the evil is spoken 
of, by encouraging the telling of evil by eager listening, 
we assault the reputation of our neighbor by the assent 
of our silence. 

There is a modern statue of Truth, instinct with the 
fire of genius, which strongly incites an opposite spirit 
and action. A stately woman in pure white . marble, 
with beautiful and firm face, wears on her head a helmet 
and carries a sword in her hand. At her feet lies a 
mask touched by the point of her sword. She has just 
smitten it from the face of Slander, and now she 
proudly draws her robe away from its polluting touch. 

It is wonderful but true that some men seem to place 
their whole religion in detraction. They strive to dis- 
cover the evil in professing Christians and are blind to 
the good. They think and say the worst possible of the 
evil they find. They judge the whole class by the few 
they have so unjustly treated, and they place great 
value upon their own comparative goodness. The re- 
ligious hope that is based upon the failure of others, 



128 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

and the holiness that is keen eyed to see only it, can 
neither of them be regarded as of the very finest quality, 
nor can a practice in direct violation of this command- 
ment be regarded as commending one to God. 

In Spencer's Fairy Queen the Red Cross hero, Holi- 
ness, defends fair Una, Truth, against all the assaults 
of the evil knights, Error and Falsehood. So the Chris- 
tian knight should be devoted in his allegiance to Truth 
and should chivalrously defend it against all assailants 
however mighty, and only in this way can he ever hope 
to merit the name of Holiness. Our Lord Jesus Christ 
is himself the Truth. In His teaching and life and 
death he fulfills the law and the promises of God, and 
fully reveals the Father to us. Yielding ourselves to 
Him in loyal devotion, He will lead us in the true and 
living way to heaven and God, and as we pass along 
our lives and lips will speak the truth of greatest value 
to our neighbor. 



THE TENTH COMMANDMENT. 

" Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet 
thy neighbor's wife, uor his man-servant, nor his maid-ssrvant, nor 
his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's." — Ex. 20 : 17. 

The first commandment directs the spirit in its rela- 
tion to God, without mentioning a single outward act. 
In the following commands the spirit is directed in its 
outward acts, of worship of God, reverence for His name, 
observance of His Sabbath, and honoring His represent- 
atives. With the fifth command duty to man beginso 
The spirit is still the subject of the law and is directed 
in its outward manifestations of honoring superiors, 
giving due regard to the sacredness of human life, of 
the right of property, of the relationship between man 
and woman, of truth to and about our neighbor, until in 
this last commandment the spirit emerges from all out- 
ward actions and, as in the first commandment, is itself 
purely and simply the subject of the law, only now 
specially in its duty to its neighbor. " Thou shalt not 
covet! " The positive command under the prohibitory 
form of the first precept, as our Savior teaches, is, " Love 
God supremely." This love is required by all the com- 
mandments of outward duty to God and man until in 
this last precept, as Christ again teaches, its positive 
form is like unto the first, " Love thy neighbor as thy- 
self." Thus the whole law is seen to be spiritual. If 
any have thought that I have made too much of some of 
these commandments, if they will reflect carefully upon 
9 129 



THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

iritual nature of the law they will soon share with 
me the conviction that I have not made and cannot 
make one half enough of a single one of them. There 
is a depth and comprehensiveness about the law 
be fully measured. There is no virtue 
within the range of human duty but is comprehended 
here. There is no vice within the reach of human 
action but is directly forbidden here. 

This commandment, - Thou shalt not covet." is fol- 
lowed by seveial specificaticr.- g with an all-em 
bracing one. This striking feature indicates a tendency 
in our nature needing restraint which is so strong that 
it would evade a general prohibition, and so the Law- 
i specifies objects in such a way that it is absolutely 
impossible for the most in genie us man to discover any- 
thing belonging to his neighbor that he is permitted, to 
covet. 

While the emphasis is upon the coveting, not upon 
the objects, the nature of the objects specified, further 
indicates that the domestic mode of life of man is pleas- 
ing to God and is specially guarded by him. The house 
as the seat of the home-life, the wife — the soul of that 
life — and all the surroundings of that life are specially 
mentioned. What protects our hemes ? The bolts and 
bars as we lock them up at night, the precautions we take 
against intrusion ? Certainly these have their proper 
effect. More than this, the State lifts its shield over 
every home, places the invisible watchman of its law 
before each door. In this the State is simply endeavor- 
ing to enforce the outward observance of God's law. 
Back of all these agencies the real protection of our 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 13 1 

homes is the voice of supreme authority speaking to the 
conscience of every man — "Thou shaltnot covet." 

In the fact that the property of our neighbor is 
guarded from our coveting, we are further instructed 
that those qualities of character which are needed to 
the acquisition of property are not forbidden but are 
commended in this commandment. How can one have 
a home at all or any thing rightfully unless it be by the 
exercise of industry, economy, good, management, thrift 
and perseverance, of carefulness and energy ? The re- 
sults of these economic virtues in their proper exercise 
are guarded in the commandment; but we are to be 
watchful against making the virtues vicious in their 
action by degrading them into the slaves of covetous- 
ness. A fair exchange of property is also needed to a 
proper enjoyment of it, and is therefore commended, 
not prohibited, in this precept. When our neighbor 
desires us to have what he has a right to convey upon 
one giving him a fair equivalent for it, our desire to 
have what he desires to give does not injure but benefits 
him. But if our desire to have what he is willing to 
give is such that it will take advantage of his ignor- 
ance or necessity, or make such use of our superior 
skill that we fail to give a just equivalent, such desire 
is clearly forbidden. Many a good bargain, as we call 
it, and many a fine fortune, have been made by the ex- 
ercise of such desires, by failure to give just equiva- 
lents, and what we call good and fine are pronounced 
by this precept covetousness, abhored by God. Our 
desire to have must respect our neighbor's interests as 
much as our own, must recognize his equal right and 



152 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

the equal right of all men to have and to hold their 
own. All other desire is forbidden. 

If we consider the commandment as simply forbid- 
ding the coveting of a particular thing belonging to a 
particular neighbor, each one of us will probabty plead 
"not guilty." We consider it mean to entice a man's 
servant from him by the offer of better wages or easier 
work, and a man's claim upon his servant is less now-a- 
days than of old, and we do not cast covetous eyes upon 
any of his possessions. But even here we may possibly 
deceive ourselves. This is an insidious vice and it has 
many degrees and related emotions. We sometimes 
hear the expression, " I wish I had that," spoken of 
some particular thing belonging to our neighbor, often 
corrected at once by, " I mean I wish I had something 
just like it." The first expression shows often the 
nature of the desire, and gives us reason to fear that 
the incipient vice forbidden may be lurking in our 
hearts, while the second is the rebuke of conscience 
which such desire deserves. 

Besides, coveting is closely related to envy, a regret 
that others have what we do not ; and akin to this is 
secret satisfaction at the misfortunes of others. Per- 
haps there may be more of these feelings in our hearts 
than we are willing to acknowledge. It sometimes 
happens that when we are in trouble we find ourselves 
taking a kind of comfort from the thought that others 
are in such trouble too, and perhaps worse off than we 
are, when this reflection should rather increase our dis- 
comfort. Besides, pride is generally a satisfaction that 
we are better than our neighbors, or have something 
they have not ; and anger is often awakened by our 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 1 33 

neighbor's rights standing in the way opposing our 
desires, and discontentment with God's dealings is fre- 
quently a matter of comparison, a feeling against God 
because He made our neighbor's lot better than ours. 
All these, and many others, are vices closely related 
to covetousness — the tie seems to be that of parent- 
age, and if the children are in our hearts we may infer 
that the hideous mother is not far off. 

Turning now to the positive feature of this com- 
mandment, we are to delight in our neighbor's good, to 
rejoice in his prosperity, and we are to strive to pro- 
mote it. In advancing our own interests we are not to 
neglect his, but are to seek them as we seek our own. 
We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. It is the 
direct opposite of seeking the whole world for ourselves 
and letting our neighbor take care of himself as best 
he can, forcing him to spend a large amount of his 
energy in guarding against our encroachments. 

The commandment is generally regarded as inculca- 
ting a spirit of contentment with our lot in God's provi- 
dence. We are to remember that not all contentment 
is commended to us. There is a contentment which is 
the most miserable selfishness, a satisfaction with our 
good fortune wedded with careless indifference to the 
lot of others. There is a contentment which is un- 
manly, arising from laziness. Alas ! also a content- 
ment that is akin to despair, a listless spirit crushed by 
adversity. " Godliness with, contentment is great gain." 
This commandment commends this kind of content- 
ment, that which arises from godliness, from obeying 
His commandments, loving God supremely and our 
neighbor as ourselves. The servants of Mammon are 



154 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, 

ever filled with a restless discontent, ever striving to 
grasp each for himself the greatest possible amount of 
earthly goods. The servants of God have all their 
powers in highest exercise in honoring Him and in pro- 
moting the general welfare, and are filled with cheerful 
contentment in the powers God has given them, in the 
held of their exercise, the lot in life He has assigned 
them, and in the result of their labors, the care the 
Father takes of them. This kind of contentment the 
commandment enjoins upon us. 

But you may say, " Is not the spirit of discontent, 
the restless seeking to acquire, the moving power of 
our high civilization, of the material advancement of 
the nation and the world? To make money moves 
the rushing train, flashes its commands over the electric 
wire, drives the machinery of the factory, fills the store- 
houses of the busy city, and spreads the sails of ships 
on every sea. Would not the world settle down into 
stagnation, would not man's fine powers rust in idleness, 
if it were not for selfish ambition? " There may be lurk- 
ing in our minds the thought that the spirit of love is 
very fine in theory but is impracticable, that our plan 
of life is better than God's plan, at any rate that striv- 
ing to acquire for one's self has produced the present 
material prosperity in our nation and in the world. 

Human activity may be aroused by wrong motives 
and conducted by wrong rules ; the activity itself, of 
brain and hand, will produce much good, but so aroused 
and conducted will likewise produce much evil. Look 
again at the world's great prosperity. There are dark 
places in it as well as bright. Here are palaces in the 
fair and noble city, filled with luxury and happiness. 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 135 

Alas! here also are tenement houses filled with squalor 
and misery. There is the great factory turning out 
beautiful goods in rich profusion, and, alas ! also turn- 
ing out stunted manhood, men, women and children, 
who have slaved themselves to death through long 
hours on small pay. Here is a great railroad corpora- 
tion stretching its lines in all directions and bringing 
inestimable blessings wherever it goes, Alas ! also, it 
is gorging itself with the hard earnings of those who 
are dependent upon it to carry their goods to market 
and with the ill requited service of those who endanger 
their lives in its employ in order that it may pay large 
dividends upon watered stock. There is a tendency in 
the world's activity to place immense wealth in the 
hands of a few to the detriment of the many, a ten- 
dency upon which we may well look with apprehension 
for the welfare of our free institutions. The civiliza- 
tion of the age brings material prosperity to the race, 
great blessings to all classes of society, even to the very 
poor. Far better is it than the stagnation of barbar- 
ism. Bat is it the highest conceivable civilization? Is 
it God's ideal of man's welfare on earth ? Are w*e 
dwelling in the millennium ? Is there no possible ad- 
vance, no good to aspire to, no evil to destroy ? 

Man's great powers may be aroused to a fuller 
activity than any yet reached. Material prosperity may 
be gained in richer amounts than any yet dreamed of, 
and better still, may be made the hand-maid of spiritual 
welfare ; and evils now raging may be checked and 
destroyed by bringing a new motive to bear on man's 
activities, love of God and man, by guiding them by a 
new rule, the law of God. Which is nobler — to have a 



136 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

great factory governed by the principle, " Make all the 
money I can," or by the reverse principle, " The wel- 
fare of my employees and the good of my customers " ? 
Which is nobler — the Statesman whose motto is, " The 
nation must honor and serve my great abilities," or one 
whose rule is to devote all his energies to the welfare 
of the nation ? Which is nobler — Napoleon or Washing- 
ton ? There is much already in our high civilization of 
enthusiastic love for humanity, and of supreme love for 
God, and it is the very best part of it. And a far 
higher and richer civilization will be brought about when 
the spirit of love shall hold universal sway. The more 
our lives are taken from the selfish grasping principle 
and become ruled by the spirit of love, the nobler they 
will be and the more useful in hastening on the higher 
civilization. 

It is evident, therefore, that the commandment not 
merely forbids the coveting of a particular thing from a 
particular neighbor, but that general coveting of material 
things which ignores our neighbor's interests, and which 
leads one to be absorbed in grasping little or much for 
himself. No wonder God pronounces such a covetous 
man an idolater and declares that he cannot enter 
heaven. His heart is empty of God, is empty of his 
brother man, and is filled with self. As well try to 
satisfy a fire with dry wood as a covetous man with 
gold. The more you pile on the fiercer will burn the 
flaming passion. We look with condescending amuse- 
ment upon our children intently engaged with their 
toys, real to them they are so young and ignorant, and 
our amusement changes to reproof when they begin to 
quarrel over them and fight for them. How must a 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 1 37 

higher order of beings look upon us in tensely interested 
in the things of time and sense, so foolish are we and 
ignorant with our toys, even struggling and fighting 
for them, while as spiritual beings we are capable of 
serving God and loving one another ! There is a fable 
of a covetous man who found his way one moonlight 
night into a fairy's palace. There was a rich profusion 
of rare beauty on every side, and many bars of solid 
gold were scattered freely about. The beauty he did 
not see, so intent was he in gathering up the bars of 
gold, and he took away a heavy load, all he could carry. 
In the morning he found the golden bars were only 
worthless sticks, and the air was filled with the scorn- 
ful laughter of the invisible fairies. When we awake 
upon the realities of eternity we will find much we 
value highly now as golden bars worthless as useless 
sticks, and the angels will be too sorrowful to laugh at 
us. 

This commandment, as the first and all the others, is 
addressed to the race of man by being addressed to each 
member of the race. It singles each one of us out from 
the multitude and speaks to us personally, u Thou shalt 
not covet." When we examine our hearts alone with 
God, does not conscience compel each one to say, " I 
think more of myself than I do of my neighbor"? Or 
even force us to say, with bowed head, "I think more 
of myself than I do of my God " ? 

This commandment seeks to control the nature back 
of the thought and desire — that which thinks and 
desires. It seeks to control the involuntary movement 
of this nature, when an object presents itself and desire 
is awakened without the consent of the will. Though 



I ;S THE TEX COMMANDMENTS. 

these desires never result in action, though they are not 
only held in check but are driven back, they are sin. 
They are not forbidden lest they may result in action, 
but because the} r are in themselves sinful in God's 
sight. They do not injure our neighbor, but they 
show our own corrupt nature. The Apostle Paul knew 
that cherished desire was sin, but thought he was free 
from sin when he held desire in check. But this com- 
mandment taught him that lust itself was sin, that 
involuntary coveting could spring only from a corrupt 
nature, sinful in God's sight. 

Meditation upon the spiritual nature of the-command- 
ments and a faithful application of them to our hearts 
and lives will convince us that we can never be justified 
under the law. No man can believe that God, the just 
Judge, will ever say of him, " The law has nothing 
against him. He is entitled to all the rewards of 
obedience." No man's conscience can say this of him- 
self now, but must say of his record, " I am guilty," and 
of his nature, "I am sinful." We recognize that the 
law is right, but are compelled to confess that we have 
net kept it, that we do not keep it, and that we are 
so corrupt that we are unable to keep it perfectly. 

This must be said of even 7 man who has ever lived, of 
whom we have any knowledge, with a single exception. 
Judged by this law we cannot find a single defect in the 
life of Jesus Christ. He kept it in its letter and in its 
spirit, in its First Table and in its Second ; kept it per- 
fectly from the beginning of his life until its close. The 
perfectness of this law, among all other laws, shows that 
it is divine. The perfectness of this life, among all 
other lives, shows that He is divine. This is also the 



THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 139 

claim of the perfect man, Jesus Christ, that he is the 
8011 of God. He claims there is no sin in him, the 
Bible states there is no sin in him, we can find no trace 
of sin in him ; yet this sinless one dies upon the cross, 
an accursed death under the law. This glorious Son of 
God, the perfect man, who has kept the law and has 
borne its curse, promises that whosoever believes in Him 
shall be saved from sin. All the promises of God, 
promises of grace and glory, are in the Son of God, 
Jesus Christ, accomplished and proclaimed. 

Now the Christian differs from all other men in three 
respects. All are alike guilty under the law, but the 
Christian acknowledges his guilt, and seeks forgiveness 
from God through Jesus Christ. All are alike sinful, 
but the Christian acknowledges his sinfulness and seeks 
the complete renewal of his nature from God, through 
Jesus Christ. All are alike unable to keep the law of 
God perfectly, but the Christian acknowledges his weak- 
ness and relies upon God through Jesus Christ for needed 
daily grace. So relying, his earnest purpose and con- 
stant endeavor are to keep all the commandments of 
God. The law is the rule of his life. Thus he serves 
the Savior whom he loves. Thus he constantly advances 
toward perfection. His present attainment is the 
measure of his Christ-likeness. It should constantly 
become more clear and full, until he shall see Him as 
He is and be like Him. 



